So for Webby Wednesday I struggled to find something interesting to write about. We have Will Smith buying a basketball team that probably wont even play this season. Drew Manning a personal trainer who turned in his 6 pack for a 5 ounce and the unnamed woman suing amazon for posting her age on IMDB (darn I wish Facebook hadn't removed my middle name now)but I just can't seem to find anything that interesting to write about...until..Something more entertaining, something scary something so shocking I just had to talk about it. Yes I could only be talking about one thing....the 1 cent increase it costs to ship a letter via USPS!
It's actually trending on yahoo! If that penny makes people crazy, wait til they find about about usps' flat rate boxes iiiish. Like a doof I ordered their free flat rate boxes, but came to realize that each flat rate box has its own shipping price. If you use a flat rate box (small, medium or large) your label must match the box. It doesnt matter whats inside the box, USPS is charging you to use the box. Small = $5, Medium = $10 and Large = $15. I learned about that the hard way. It would have been cheaper to just deliver the boxes personally! USPS may even return your box to you if the label is incorrect. But their not consistent with it. My mailman discussed it with me and even he was surprised by it. Nice to see the company is on the same page.
Anyways going back to original topic. Because of e-mail. the post office has lost alot of money. Hardly anyone mails letters these days. You add phones, fax and texting to the mix its a wonder why people even bother with letters. Post office lost $8 Billion in fiscal in 2010. Not sure what fiscal is? Me neither.
Their way of possibly solving their financial issues is to reduce mail delivery from 6 days a week to 5 and pulling a Blockbuster (store) on us and closing down thousands of post offices around the country. I guess the $5.5 Billion a year fund for medical benefits for retired employees doesn't help either. If their retired I'm sure they can afford medical bills. How about giving that 5 billion to someone who needs it like...well me. I was forced into retirement (that and no one will hire me)
Here are other increased noted on Yahoo
But while the post office is not part of the federal budget, the fund receiving the payment is, so it counts as income to the government, making the federal deficit appear $5.5 billion smaller. Because eliminating the payment would make the deficit seem bigger, there has been reluctance to drop it.
Call me slow, but I did not get a single word of that paragraph!
—Postcards will go up 3 cents to 32 cents.
—Letters to Canada and Mexico will increase a nickel to 85 cents.
—Letters to other foreign countries will go up 7 cents to $1.05.
—Prices for advertising mail, periodicals and parcels also will rise about 2.1 percent.
—There will be a new three-month option for renting post office boxes, for people who need them only for a short time.
—Delivery confirmation will be free on some parcel services, rather than being an extra charge.
First Hollywood Video, Burger King, than Circuit City, than Blockbuster now Post office potential closing? All these business are in my neighborhood, at this rate by 2015 I'll be living in a haunted city. Nothing but empty business.
Info from: http://news.yahoo.com/mailing-letter-cost-penny-more-next-181618115.html
