Did you notice how stealthily your left-over, 37-cent postage stamps became useless last week?
Effective Jan. 8, the United States Postal Service (USPS) raised the price of first-class mail by 2 cents. I don't know about your household, but that meant the roll of 37-cent stamps I purchased a couple of months ago became useless-not useless in the familiar definition of the word, but useless in the sense that a fix was required.
I have to fix this problem, much in the same way I'd have to repair a defective appliance. Now, to bring the total postage to 39 cents, I have to add another stamp on the envelope, adjacent to my old stamp.
In order to fix the problem I am forced to travel to the Magnolia Post Office, wait in what I anticipate will be a long line, and then purchase the two-cent stamps. I won't bother commenting on the once-upon-a-time penny post card and its new price. Fuggidaboutit!
I submit that USPS could have done something much smoother and less cumbersome in order to balance their budget. It may sound crazy but, had I possessed the power to do so, I'd have implemented a refund plan. My policy would declare: "Return all unused 37-cent stamps, and you'll be issued the new 39-cent model, which will fix the problem."
Isn't this the way most businesses operate in our free enterprise system? If the item you purchased in good faith doesn't work, you take it back to the store and they either refund your money or replace the item with a new, functional item.
In my postal system, a stamp is an item people buy in good faith. They take it home to use for a first-class mailing. If my postal system sells a customer a product that later becomes defective, failing to work as originally promised, then I must allow the customer the opportunity to have it fixed at no additional cost.
But, you argue, wouldn't such a policy push a business deeper in debt?
The simple answer is: Yes, but only temporarily.
Consider the issue of a warranty on a new car. If the car model a consumer purchases has a design flaw, the company issues a letter to all owners, who then bring the car to a dealer so he can fix the problem-at no additional cost to the customer.
The cost of repairing a manufacturer's defect is absorbed, as it should be, by the automobile manufacturer, and it is considered a public relations and safety expense. Likely the auto manufacturer will increase the price of next year's model to recoup the expense.
Likewise, in my postal system, the next postal increase will be significant. Why? Because it's foolish to soak customers for pennies in order to bolster budgets, especially when the gross annual operations budget of that business runs into the billions of dollars.
So, my next postage-rate hike will require a total of 50 cents to mail a first-class letter. The large increase not only will pay for the returns of the old-model stamps and the reissue of the new stamp; it will come with a promise as well, like a warranty, that no additional increases will occur for a decade.
Making such a promise is entirely feasible because the extra 11 cents raised by the sale of each new 50-cent stamp will earn millions of dollars in annual interest. That money will be invested in government treasury notes to be cashed in, as needed, over the next 10 years to cover postal system expenses.
Finally, over the next 10 years, I'd sponsor legislation that would allow for competitive marketing among the various courier services. Isn't it possible for the likes of UPS, DHL and FedEx to carry first-class mail? Doesn't fair competition generally lead to lower costs? Seems like a good idea to me.
Bernie Sadowski lives in Magnolia.[[In-content Ad]]
