Stamp Prices Rise By 8%, For The Second Time In 4 Months

It's only appropriate that on the day the BLS reported that prices are once again galloping away from the Fed's 2% inflation target - and hit fresh monthly record highs - that the Post Office announced stamp prices would also rise to a record high... for the second time this year.

According to the U.S. Postal Service, the price of the woefully misnamed First-Class Mail Forever stamp will increase to 73 cents on July 14, 2024, up by a nickel from the 68 cents one currently costs. When it was first introduced in 2007, a Forever stamp was 41 cents. The stamps were named as such so one knew they could use the stamp "forever," regardless of when it was purchased.

This is the second time the price of the Forever stamp will increase this year: it rose to 68 cents in January, from 66 cents.

The latest proposed changes also include a nickel hike to the price to mail a 1-ounce metered letter, to 69 cents, the postal service said Tuesday in a news release.

Mailing a postcard domestically will soon cost 56 cents, a 3-cent increase, while the price of mailing postcards and letters internationally are both rising by a dime to $1.65.

All told, the proposed changes represent a roughly 7.8% increase in the price of sending mail through the catastrophically run agency. The silver lining: the price of renting a Post Office Box is not going up, and USPS will reduce the cost of postal insurance 10% when mailing an item, it said. The only problem: virtually nobody rents PO Boxes any more or uses insurance for that matter.

The increases, part of the Postal Service's 10-year plan toward profitability - which will never be achieved since no government agency has ever managed to not burn through taxpayer funds - are hurting mail volume and USPS' bottom line, according to Keep US Posted, a nonprofit advocacy group of consumers, nonprofits, newspapers, greeting card publishers, magazines and catalogs.

The group called for the proposed increases to be rejected and for Congress to take a closer look at the Postal Service's operations, citing findings by NDP Analytics in March. That would mean firing tens of thousands of useless dead weight workers, which of course would be the proper solution because - as with the US deficit itself - the problem is not the revenues, it is the spending.

"If rate increases continue to proceed at this frequency and magnitude without critical review, it risks plummeting volume further and exacerbating USPS's financial challenges," according to the report commissioned by the Greeting Card Association and Association for Postal Commerce.

USPS in November reported a $6.5 billion loss for fiscal 2023, and is projecting a $6.3 billion deficit in 2024.

But wait, there's more, because today we celebrate soaring prices not only through postage stamps but also through mass transit: according to Bloomberg, New Jersey Transit riders can expect higher prices after the system’s board voted to raise fares to help cover a $107 million shortfall. The 15% fare hike, which would go into effect July 1, would be followed by 3% increases each year thereafter to account for inflation (just in case one wonders what the true inflation target is).

Proponents say the higher prices are needed to close the budget deficit for the upcoming fiscal year, while still maintaining current service. The cash-strapped agency last raised fares in 2015.

“While a fare increase is always an option of last resort and we recognize the impact an increase of any size has on all our customers, I remain strongly committed to ensure that the overall service levels are not reduced,” Kevin Corbett, the system’s president and chief executive officer, said at the Wednesday meeting.

Public-transit agencies across the US are struggling as pandemic-era aid sunsets and ridership remains stubbornly below pre-Covid levels with many workers embracing a hybrid work environment. NJ Transit officials acknowledged earlier this year that the raised prices could curb ridership, estimating a potential loss of 1.4% the next fiscal year.