snail mail

Post Office Raises Rates Again
11/15/05

November 15, 2005

"The U.S. Postal Service board of governors approved a rate increase that will boost the price of mailing a first-class letter to 39 cents from 37 cents starting Jan. 8." (Washington Post, Tuesday)

Still just a penny a day!

FEE Timely Classic
"Time for the Mail Monopoly to Go" by Scott Esposito

(And if you still don't know who Lysander Spooner was, it's time to learn.)

It only just occurs to me now that this familiar ritual of rising stamp prices depends entirely on the American public believing that price inflation is a natural phenomenon, rather than the direct result of government fraud.

Now, as it happens, the early 21st century is seeing an increase in the demand for fuel from the developing economies of the East, which will raise global fuel prices, even without monetary inflation. We also have interruptions in supply, which will raise global fuel prices, even without monetary inflation. Rising fuel prices, mean some other prices will go up -- the prices of those things whose increased costs are still voluntarily borne by consumer demand -- while other prices go down, as purchases are shifted from lower-demand goods to stable-demand goods. (And other goods might all but disappear when their production costs come to exceed the market price.)

All of which is to say that fuel costs affect delivery costs, so a rise in the price of mail this year is not necessarily something we get to blame on the Fed.

Not necessarily.

This time.

But what's their excuse the rest of the time?

Well, I guess their excuse is that prices just naturally go up.

Everyone knows that, silly.