Postal Service

In case you didn't know, I learned the following from a talkative postal employee at the counter in Laramie today when I went in to mail a package and buy postcard stamps:

-- On May 12, postal rates will rise again, to 42 cents for a first class stamp and 27 cents for a postcard stamp. (I remember when first class stamps were less than half the price of a postcard stamp.) Not only will rates increase on May 12, but this will be an annual occurrence, so expect it and be prepared.

-- The government is selling off the postal service in bits and pieces, privatizing the institution. Did you know that the US Postal Service does more business in a day than UPS and FedEx do in a year? And that there is no way that any one business can take on and carry out the logistics that the USPS does on a daily basis? So, what will happen is that many smaller private businesses will take on various aspects of postal service. What this means, in part, is that we will no longer receive our mail at home; we will have to "go to a store to pick it up."

-- You can contact your Congresspeople and tell them you don't want this privatization to take place. The employee who instructed me today does not believe this will happen because he thinks the American public are basically lazy. I told him I think people are mostly uninformed; he agreed and suggested that someone should do a blog to get the word out. I told him I would put the news on mine.

I have done my civic duty. Now you can do yours.