A penny could cost you more than $10

Surprised? Don't be, although our friendly US Postal Service pushed through another trivial rate hike last week. It won't effect you if you bought the "Forever" Stamps, however for all of us who had other stamps - flags, commemorative, etc... we need another $.01 or 1 cent.

Now how can this rate change cost you more when all you have to do is slap another stamp on your envelope? Well, if you are like a friend of mine and are a procrastinator then you mail your bills in a few days before they are due. If, however, on this rare occasion where the Post Office rules, you don't have enough postage, then your bill may be returned. You'll need an extra stamp and a few extra bucks for the late fee.

A steep price to pay for a government agency that refuses to acknowledge that times are changing. Most of us hate junk mail, however the post office in its continuously out of touch gestures has stated that junk mail is its life blood. Now let me get this straight. A government agency that is supposed to serve the people has decided to raise rates so that they can continue to deliver things to the people that we have repeatedly said that we do not want. Is that arrogance or what?

Instead of raising our rates, how about delivering residential mail twice a week. We communicate in many different ways and fewer of those ways include the post office and their renown efficiencies. Most of us would be just fine (maybe even better off) getting our mail twice a week instead of every day.

This way the Post Office could reduce costs significantly. Postal workers could service various routes on different days and fuel costs would drop considerably. This reduced need could allow them to reduce their staffing needs by both lowering recruitment and allowing attrition of senior postal workers to take effect.

This one simple plan would:

• reduce deliveries
• reduce transportation costs
• reduce labor costs
• get us the mail that we need in a timely manner

Speaking for myself and my family, we could live quite happily without the junk mail that hits our mail box six days a week. 80% goes into the recycle bin so that we can have another much more benevolent public service haul this away twice a month.

Of course, all of this assumes that the US Postal Service really wants to serve the people that are citizens and customers more than the people that are employees, union reps and industry insiders.