I been thinking about the Post Office saying maybe they”ll cut back and not deliver mail on Saturdays and the Record-Bee saying in a recent editorial that you agree with the Post Office. Well, I don”t. I remember when mail was delivered twice a day, six days a week and first class postage was three cents and there were penny post cards.
And you know what the difference really is between then and now? It ain”t millions and millions more letters and post cards. It”s the junk mail that we don”t even read. And every time the post office wants to raise the real cheap price they got for that junk mail, the junk mail mailer companies holler “Free Speech!”, and the post office backs down.
You might argue that Monkey Ward and Sears and J.C.Penneys quit sending our their monster catalogues because the post office wanted more money for postage. Well, that happened after WWII, when regional shopping malls were being built and those big retailers didn”t have to depend on catalogue sales any more to make money.
What if the Post Office said, “OK, you junk mail mailers, you”re gonna have to pay five cents more for every piece you mail than you do now?”
Of course, first of all, they”d holler and scream. But what if the Post Office held fast? Some might quit mailing their junk and that wouldn”t be no bad thing for us, the Post Office customers. But in the end, with some less mail to handle and more money for what they would handle, the post office would have enough money to stay in the every day mail delivery business and maybe break even.
A course, advertising is a business expense that is a tax deduction. So if postage cost more for junk mail and advertising mailers, they”d just deduct more from their taxes.
I think the Post Office ought to try raising junk mail prices a bunch instead of raising first class stamp prices and saying they might quit delivering mail on Saturdays. Think about it, and maybe you”ll agree.
Don Moeller
Kelseyville
