Rising postal rates: Perverse 'solution'

The U.S. Postal Service is proposing that the cost of mailing the first ounce of first-class mail rise from 39 cents to 41 cents; the charge for the second ounce would go down.

The "penny post card" would jump from 24 to 26 cents.

Our recommendation: Use e-mail whenever you can and begin using online bill-paying. Mail nothing first class unless you absolutely have to.

Postal Service costs are rising in no small measure because of a mandate that it must fund retiree health benefits after making promises on which it did not deliver until Congress stepped in.

Mail volume is not rising sufficiently -- owing to e-mail, for example -- to keep the Postal Service growing at a healthy rate.

The head of the postal workers union, William Burrus, called the complex rate-hike proposal "a victory for the American people." No, it's a victory for union wages and benefits.

These monopolists do not deserve to be rewarded. In a world where words still have standard meanings, price hikes are not Orwellian "victories."

Why is it the Postal Service still is not subjected to the competition of the private market for first-class mail• Because it can't, or most accurately won't , compete.

Where markets are competitive, the instinct is to cut prices when customer loss is at issue. Instead, the Postal Service does the opposite.

In a world where words still have standard meanings, that's perverse.