GOING POSTAL IS NOT AN OPTION

Last week, the Independent Regulatory Postal Commission denied the U.S. Postal Service's request to increase the price of a first class letter from 44 cents to 46 cents, but considering that the Post Office lost $3.8 billion dollars last year and is expected to lose almost $6 billion dollars this year, just how does the Postal Commission expect the Postal Service to meet its expenses? After all, money doesn't grow on trees, and the Postal Service has to compete with the likes of U.P.S. and FedEx in the parcel shipping business and cope with the loss of letter traffic to the Internet.

Essentially, the Postal Commission is requiring the Postal Service to deliver mail six days-a-week on five days worth of income and is not being realistic about what it takes to provide the service they demand. Plus, 2-cents per letter will not break the bank.

I do the grocery shopping for my household, and I can name at least twenty items that I regularly buy that have risen more than 2 cents in price over the past 2 months. I haven't seen letters in the newspapers decrying those companies for passing on their expenses to the consumer, who in the end, can choose whether or not they purchase those products for consumption. Once more, the store shelves are not suddenly overstocked with those items because consumers refuse to buy them. That tells me that American consumers recognize that product costs have increased and are willing to absorb those increases as a necessary cost of purchasing the products they desire.

The same rules of supply and demand should apply to the Postal Service. If a person does not wish to pay the two additional cents for mailing a first-class letter, it is their prerogative to opt not to use the Postal Service to make their delivery. In the same vein, people should not expect, nor should the Postal Service be required to render a service for which they are not being adequately compensated.

At 44 cents per first class letter, the U.S. Postal Service is not being adequately compensated for the service it is providing and the Independent Regulatory Postal Commission is doing a disservice to the nation by jeopardizing the ongoing financial health of this important service provider.

Going postal shouldn't be an option when it comes to a 2-cent rate increase, but you wouldn't know that by listening to the Postal Commission. Then again, they probably never delivered the mail.