[wplug] Taxes

Patrick Wagstrom patrick at wagstrom.net
Thu May 1 16:14:03 EDT 2008


terry mcintyre wrote:
> I used to work for the USPS - well after the Nixon
> administration. My paychecks were direct from the US
> Treasury. How is that "privatised?"

The status of the postal service is often a little confusing.  Many people 
believe that they are a government owned corporation, such as Amtrak, but 
they're not.  In fact, in 2004 the Supreme Court held that it wasn't an 
independent corporation and therefore couldn't be sued under the Sherman 
Antitrust act, much to the chagrin of UPS and FedEx that were suing for 
access to business delivery boxes.

However, it is an independent agency of the United States government which 
basically has to balance it's own books and is given free ability to set 
it's own rates.

With regards to price of stamps, lets look at it, today a stamp costs 
$0.41.  In 2000 it was $0.33, in 1990 it was $0.25, and in 1980 it was 
$0.15[1].

Lets compare these increases:
      Stamp  %inc CPI[2]  %inc
2008 $0.41  24%  213     26%
2000 $0.33  32%  168     32%
1990 $0.25  66%  127     62%
1980 $0.15       78

Notice a trend there?  It exactly paces the CPI.  You can argue that it 
should be better because of improvements in IT, but the CPI also is a 
weighted metric that doesn't exactly match the expenditures of the USPS 
which is disproportionately affected by fuel costs.

Seriously folks, before bitching because you think XX is evil and you don't 
like it, take some time to do a little bit of research.

--Patrick

[1] http://www.akdart.com/postrate.html
[2] 
http://www.inflationdata.com/Inflation/Consumer_Price_Index/HistoricalCPI.aspx


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