THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE IS INSANE

The following article was written in May 1998. It clearly and accurately spells out the complete inefficiency and stupidity of raising postal rates one cent at a time. In January 1999, the 1st class rate was increased from 32 to 33 cents. Compounding their insanity, the USPS soon increased that rate another paltry penny to 34 cents. AND NOW, those myopic bureaucrats again plan to increase the 1st Class letter postage to 35 cents. Please read the following article to understand the time-consuming and expensive ramifications of their frequent increases. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSMEN TO GET THEIR ATTENTION IN THIS MATTER AND RESPECTFULLY APPRISE THEM OF YOUR CONCERN. Constituents, from either party, don't appreciate make-work legislation. It's not the money, it's our TIME!

Thank you kindly from Wholesale Nutrition. If you mail us copies of your letter(s) to your Congressmen, and their answer(s), we'll send you, gratis, a $28 bottle of C-Salts (which was highly recommended by Dr. Andrew Weil in two of his books).

Oscar Falconi
May 2001

THE 33-, 34-, and now, the 35-CENT STAMP

A FIASCO, A DISASTER, AND A TRAGEDY!

Beginning in January 1999, a quarter-BILLION Americans will have yet another task to perform - namely to lick many, many BILLIONS of one-cent stamps.

Why? Because the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) thinks it'll go in the red for a year (after years in the black!!).

Sure, the one-cent increase will turn USPS's bottom line positive - but THEIR bottom line doesn't consider the 100s of millions of hours we Americans will spend driving, standing in lines, looking for, licking, and sticking billions of one cent stamps - ONE-AT-A-TIME!

What, after all, is a stamp? It's a marvelous invention that allows us to mail a letter without having to go to a post office to pay a clerk. Now how much does it cost us to buy a sheet of one-cent stamps? One dollar? How about the drive? And the wait in line? Americans make a dollar in about 3 minutes. After that drive, and the wait in line, how long do you figure it'll take for you to lick'n stick 100 one-cent stamps - ONE-AT-A-TIME? I figure at least 15 minutes. So that's $5 of your time (plus driving, etc.) so that the USPS can make a dollar! - BUT what does it cost the U.S. Postal Service to print, deliver, and sell 100 one-cent stamps? Plus the enormous expense of revising and reprinting and delivering all the new literature and forms to inform the post offices and the public of this one-cent change. And what of the expense, aggravation, and inefficiency of returning a letter just because it lacks a one cent stamp? And you know what? After all this fuss to increase by a penny the cost of mailing the first ounce, the second ounce was DECREASED a penny!! This whole exercise is ludicrous!

But it's not just the money. It's our TIME!! Legislators seem not to appreciate, nor even consider, our valuable time.

LIFE IS TOO SHORT AND WE MUSTN'T WASTE IT ON FRIVOLOUS TASKS MANDATED BY NEAR-SIGHTED BUREAUCRATS.

The hated IRS form 1040 is a case in point where a CONSIDERABLE PERCENTAGE OF OUR LIVES is spent thrashing around collecting and organizing paperwork for the April fiasco.

Another case in point: The USPS's blatant promotion of hoards of "collector stamps" for the greedy purpose of encouraging unsuspecting folks to store unused stamps for a lifetime. There's nothing so frustrating as to wait in a long post office line while someone's trying to decide between Humphrey Bogart and Bugs Bunny.

In addition, this 33-cent stamp game gives the USPS a great opportunity for YET ANOTHER ROUND of "collector stamps" with which to fleece the public of their time and money and lengthen post office lines.

Of course, the USPS must increase prices from time to time and must try to stay in the black about half the time. But, lacking competition in the First Class postage arena, they clearly could change stamp prices much less frequently. The USPS could easily wait a few years to change the 1st Class stamp to 35 cents. Then a decade or so later to 40 cents - always divisible by 5 so we needn't waste more valuable time with obsolete pennies. If they changed it to 35 cents, we could still use those 3-cent stamps we all have laying around that we used, and are still using, to lick and add to the 29-cent stamps many of us still have.

A better solution would be for an avant-garde USPS to sell a 1st Class stamp, good any time for domestic mail. It'd be a permanent, numberless, stamp, usable now and forever for a 1st Class letter in the U.S., and hopefully Canada, too. The USPS could then change the stamp's price yearly, a half cent at a time if they wished, and we poor folks needn't undergo unnecessary, frustating, time-wasting tasks.

In fact, instead of buying a few dozen stamps and stamped-envelopes at the post office, we would now purchase 1000's at a time (some discounts apply) considering it an investment that's sure to increase in value with time. And the USPS could make good use of our money all the while. Lines would be shorter at the post office, those silly temporary "A-B-C..." stamps (also "collectible") would be scrapped, and we could all get on with our lives.

But will it happen? Of course not! Because BUREAUCRATS ARE TURKEYS - AND PEOPLE ARE SHEEP!!

© May 1998 Oscar Falconi
Saratoga CA 95070, U.S.A.

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