Price break for bulk mailers is unfair
Forty-one cents? For one letter?
At least 75 percent of my daily mail is “junk mail” (advertising) or letters from charities wanting money. I can’t help notice that much of this excess mail has a postage cost of only 11 cents or slightly more. That’s unfair! And I keep getting more all the time, even from charities I have never heard of before ... some of them every week, and even two from the same charity in the same day.
I feel that all of these advertising people, charities and campaigners should pay the same rate for postage as we the average citizens do. We are obviously paying the major costs for their mailings ... most of which we don’t want, and throw in the trash.
Please! Shouldn’t the Postal Service make them pay the same as us? That would also eliminate the burden all of this excessive mail needed to be sorted and delivered that we don’t want to receive anyway. They would have to pay more, and we could pay less (probably much less) to meet the budget of the nation’s Postal Service.
Ken Maetzold, Denver
Sorry to burst your bubble, Ken. But it's that massive flood of Bulk (el cheapo) mail that keeps your postage down to a modestly obscene level of 41 cents. Eliminate the el cheapos and you'd probably be paying close to $1.00 to mail that letter to your mom.
It would be like taking the cover to cover advertising out of newspapers -- you know, what comprises 80% of the pages you hold in your hand every morning. Eliminate that eye clutter from your browsing pleasure and you'd get to pay around $750.00 a year for the daily sports and comics (with a modicum inclusion of real news -- like today) to read with your Wheaties.
Volume pays the bills, my friend.
Posted by on August 7, 2007 01:11 AMI would gladly pay what it costs to mail a letter to get rid f all that junk.
Posted by Liam on August 7, 2007 05:48 AMLiam you could use Fed Ex and pay about 7$
Posted by on August 7, 2007 08:34 AMMaetzold needs to understand that people that send bulk mail do much of the work that postal workers would normally be required to do, all within strict guidelines required by the USPS. The 41 cent stamp means you pay the post office workers to decipher sometimes almost illegible handwriting, sending letters to places as far away as Guam and all this done within a few days (usually). 41 cents does seem like alot, especially for those of us who remember when the postal service raised the rates for a first class letter to 4 cents about 50 years ago. It took nearly 180 years to get to that amount.
Posted by on August 7, 2007 09:52 AMLiam, speak for yourself, Kimosabe. I find it much cheaper to drop the "el cheapo" bulk mailings in the trash...my trash charge per month is fixed whereas my mailing costs aren't.
Posted by on August 7, 2007 08:46 PM