Topic: Inflation creeping into the USPS (Read 141 times)

2%? and you call this crazy? 
Wait for it, in a few years you'll stop counting the cents as it won't matter anymore, and you will finally get rid of the penny as one truckload of those coins won't be worth one ingot of zinc.

Trillions getting injected into the economy, rising oil prices, increase in the minimum wage, you'll see a lot of prices going up, this is just the beginning. Of course, it won't be something Venezuela style, more like Eastern Europe in the 90s.

Not someone but all, everyone will pay for it, even the ones that didn't get a cent!
The blessings of free money!

I'm seeing it in Europe as well.

All those trillions will hurt within months, years at most..

If the economy starts to "recover" and there will be some shit going in another oil-producing country, of if Biden starts to turn the US into a green paradise with zero shale oil you might see oil at 100$ again, 5$ a gallon, and 10$ a stamp won't be that far away.

I know eventually someone is going to have to pay for all this stimulus money in addition to all the money being injected into the system via the "printing press" at the Fed.  I've been anticipating inflation shooting up (and/or taxes), and I just noticed that the USPS raised the rates on some of their more expensive services (like Priority mail) and even $0.01 on postage for a post card.  Seems like they've been raising rates quite a bit in the past couple of years, though you might not see it in the standard $0.55 first class mail stamp.  

We're not getting all of this money for free, so expect prices to be rising not just for stamps but probably for a lot of things the various branches of government charge you for.  Think of all the professionals who have to renew their licenses, all the driver's licenses, auto registration, etc.  I don't know if there's any site to track that kind of econometric data, but it would be interesting to see if I'm right.

$8.45 it cost me to mail a small Flat Rate Priority Mail box.  It was $8.30 just a few days ago.  Crazy.

2%? and you call this crazy? 

-snip-

I'm seeing it in Europe as well. Things are going wild in a quite short timespan. Food and services are becoming more expensive, and I expect it to happen everywhere...

I've been calling this ever since the pandemic began and they started artificially inflating and stimulating the economy. You can keep doing that, but not forever! And once they stop doing that, things will blow up.. All those trillions will hurt within months, years at most..

Yes, looking at my post from your point of view it sounds silly, but if I'm not mistaken the USPS had already raised rates on priority mail just a few months ago, and it's starting to add up.

For every penny increase in the national average price of gasoline, the USPS spends an extra US$8 million per year to fuel its fleet.

That's nothing. At least the USPS operates as a public service, not a for-profit business. This increase is in line with their usual increases which happen every year or two. It's also in line with the target inflation rate.

In contrast, I'm easily paying 20-50% higher prices on many things I buy on Amazon vs. a few years ago. But I think the case of Amazon is especially egregious because they are jacking prices up after cornering lots of markets. I'm sure it's not purely a matter of costs or inflation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service ...

"The USPS is often mistaken for a state-owned enterprise or government-owned corporation (e.g., Amtrak) because it operates much like a business. It is, however, an "establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States", (39 U.S.C. § 201) as it is controlled by presidential appointees and the postmaster general. As a government agency, it has many special privileges, including sovereign immunity, eminent domain powers, powers to negotiate postal treaties with foreign nations, and an exclusive legal right to deliver first-class and third-class mail. Indeed, in 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision “The Postal Service is not subject to antitrust liability. In both form and function, it is not a separate antitrust person from the United States but is part of the Government, and so is not controlled by the antitrust laws" such as the Sherman Antitrust Act.[89] Unlike a state-owned enterprise, the USPS lacks a transparent ownership structure and isn't subject to standard rules and norms that apply to commercial entities. The USPS also lacks commercial discretion and control.[90]

The U.S. Supreme Court has also upheld the USPS's statutory monopoly on access to letter boxes against a First Amendment freedom of speech challenge; it thus remains illegal in the U.S. for anyone, other than the employees and agents of the USPS, to deliver mailpieces to letter boxes marked "U.S. Mail".[91]

The Postal Service also has a Mailers' Technical Advisory Committee and local Postal Customer Councils, which are advisory and primarily involve business customers.[92]"

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I know eventually someone is going to have to pay for all this stimulus money in addition to all the money being injected into the system via the "printing press" at the Fed.  I've been anticipating inflation shooting up (and/or taxes), and I just noticed that the USPS raised the rates on some of their more expensive services (like Priority mail) and even $0.01 on postage for a post card.  Seems like they've been raising rates quite a bit in the past couple of years, though you might not see it in the standard $0.55 first class mail stamp.  

We're not getting all of this money for free, so expect prices to be rising not just for stamps but probably for a lot of things the various branches of government charge you for.  Think of all the professionals who have to renew their licenses, all the driver's licenses, auto registration, etc.  I don't know if there's any site to track that kind of econometric data, but it would be interesting to see if I'm right.

$8.45 it cost me to mail a small Flat Rate Priority Mail box.  It was $8.30 just a few days ago.  Crazy.

2%? and you call this crazy?  

Wait for it, in a few years you'll stop counting the cents as it won't matter anymore, and you will finally get rid of the penny as one truckload of those coins won't be worth one ingot of zinc.

$8.45 it cost me to mail a small Flat Rate Priority Mail box.  It was $8.30 just a few days ago.  Crazy.

I know eventually someone is going to have to pay for all this stimulus money in addition to all the money being injected into the system via the "printing press" at the Fed.