Bush strikes again: His USPS Board of Governors just killed American small business

[brentspeak]

Want to sell something to someone overseas? Well, you're going to have a tough time doing so beginning this Monday. On May 14, the new USPS postal rates go into effect. Almost every rate, domestic and international, goes up. But what really goes up are the international rates: in many cases, the cost of shipping something out of the U.S. increases by at least 25% the previous rate.

Flat-rate Global Priority envelope, small, prior to May 14: $4.25 or $5.25 (depending on country)

Flat-rate Global Priority envelope, small, beginning May 14: Eliminated. The Board of Governors have done away with the small, flat-rate Global Priority envelope which has been a meat-and-potatoes form of delivery for U.S. small businesses and individuals.

Flat-rate Global Priority envelope, large, prior to May 14: $7.50 or $9.50 (depending on country)

Flat-rate Global Priority envelope, large, beginning May 14: $9.00 or $11.50 (depending on country). That's a 20% and 17.4% rate increase.

And Airmail? That's being retitled "First Class International Mail", and will be increased an average of 25% to anywhere on the planet.

On top of this, shipping will be made twice as complicated as ever before. In the past, the weight of a package has been the main thing determining prices. Now, not only weight determines price, but also the shape of the package can increase the price. People preparing packages to either domestic or international destinations will be forced to follow a laundry-list of "shape" regulations in order to avoid surcharges.

What this all means is that the Bush-appointed USPS Board of Governors, and his Postmaster General, have effectively levied a 20-40% tarrif on American businesses seeking to export goods. And small businesses dealing with domestic clients also suffer, thanks mostly to the nonsensical "shape" rules.

Here's a list of Bush's stooges at USPS:

http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/bog.htm

[peacetalksforall]

1. Time-Warner wrote the regulations? Did I read that on DU?

Privatized folks. Small business - always the victim? YES. Buy something for $15.00, pay $30.oo in postage - because of privitization of our good old post office.

[brentspeak]

3. Time-Warner, maybe in collaboration with "free-trade" con-artists too

Who benefits the most from this? Large corporations, both American-based and foreign-based, who make their items in China and India (and those items are mostly cheap junk). The outrageous postage rate hikes effectively kills the large corporations' competition: U.S. exports.

[brentspeak]

5. Here's something that might be a smoking gun, re. Time Warner:

This article says that the new postal rates could destroy small publications (like "The Nation"), which compete against Time-Warner publications:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2003690619_posted03.html

The new system put in place by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC), and suggested at the urging of Time Warner, is a dangerous assault to the pathway of ideas that helped build the United States. The complicated plan makes it cheaper for publishers such as Time Warner — which has about 130 titles, including Sports Illustrated, People and Time — to reach readers through the mail.

On the flip side, smaller publications such as The Nation — nearly all of its 187,000 are paid subscriptions — estimate a $500,000 yearly rate increase for postage. Any rate hike that steep for an independent publisher such as The Nation could damage its newsgathering ability or shut it down...

[magellan]

19. Also recently covered on DN! with Nation magazine publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel

Nation magazine publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel speaks out on a new US Post Office rate change that could affect many small and independent publications in this country. Postal rates for smaller periodicals could increase by as much as 30 percent while some of the largest circulation magazines will face hikes of less than 10 percent. According to internal documents, the hike was accepted based on a “a rate structure proposed by Time Warner, Inc.”

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The new postage rates that are being implemented by the US Post Office which could affect many small and independent publications in this country. Postal rates for smaller periodicals could increase by as much as 30 percent while some of the largest circulation magazines will face hikes of less than 10 percent.

The advocacy group Free Press says the rate change was developed with no public involvement or Congressional oversight. They are calling for a congressional hearing on the changes. The Postal Service Board of Governors recently accepted the periodical rate recommendations of the Postal Regulatory Commission. According to a document outlining the Board’s decision, the Commission recommended “a rate structure proposed by Time Warner, Inc.”

The Nation magazine is part of a broad coalition that has sent a letter to the Postal Board of Governors opposing the new postage rate plan.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/24/1446244&mode=thread&tid=25


She noted that other small publications like The National Review and The American Conservative have joined the coalition against this postal increase.

[shanti]

8. how else

is the gov't going to get those pesky ebay'ers? can't tax them, so they get them this way.

[Blue_In_AK]

2. These increased costs

will no doubt apply to shipping to Alaska, as well, since we already pay about twice as much as anybody else in the country to have stuff shipped up here. It doesn't do any good to remind people that Alaska has been part of the U.S. for almost 50 years and that postage rates "should" be the same to all parts of the country.

Bah, I hate this.

[RC]

4. Think UPS & FedEx.

They'll take the extra business.

[w4rma]

7. And increase their rates, too. (nt)

[orleans]

6. thurgood marshall jr. is on this board?? humph! n/t

[Elwood P Dowd]

9. This might just kill my eBay sales (nm)

:grr:

[teamster633]

10. I would submit that they are not so much raising rates...

...as they are lowering, or do not dare to raise the amount by which tax payers are forced to subsidize USPS international operations. My guess is that these rates will still be lower than those that any private carrier will be able to offer because we will all be chipping in our own small part.

[brentspeak]

11. Huh? On exactly what basis are you making this claim?

"Lowering"? "Daring not to raise the amount by which tax payers...?"

:crazy:

They just did "dare raise the amount" -- by 25%! The elimination of the small Global Priority flat-rate envelope results in a 2x rate increase just for sending simple documents or small items. And who cares what private carriers offer?

As another poster pointed out, this new rate schedule was created in collaboration with freaking Time Warner, Inc., who benefits from it while their smaller competitors get decimated by it.

[SharonAnn]

12. USPS has to pay foreign carriers to deliver mail in their countries.

Just like the phone compnies have to pay foreign phone companies to carry long-distance calls.

[brentspeak]

13. And...?

Is this a brand-new thing?

[teamster633]

14. Having been a UPS employee for 29 years....

...(I)"care private carriers offer". The USPS serves one legitimate function, to deliver the mail. It is an essential service which should be administered by the central government. Everything else they do undercuts established businesses. The attorneys at our company would claim they accomplish this by subsidizing these other operations with the revenue they receive from their monopoly on First Class mail delivery.

[brentspeak]

15. You have a vested interest in seeing USPS raise its rates

I was wondering why you were trying to come up with excuses for the hikes. You are aware that tons of American small businesses are now going to be destroyed thanks to the rate hikes?

[teamster633]

16. I am aware of no such thing.

And, yes, I do have a vested interest. If the company I work for has to compete against the Federal Government, I prefer that the playing field be as level as possible.

[peacetalksforall]

21. Government? Federal Government. I can't quote the exact details -

but much of the post office is no longer a government operation. The operation of post offices has been pretty much privatized. Additionally, they are morphing delivery - one of the things they are doing is giving new service to outside companies. If a sky rise goes up - the mail for that high rise is given to an outside company. There are a couple of other similar situations - social security - postal services - they WANT THEIR FRIENDS to have it all. TIme-Warner - one of their closest friends. We're not talking OUR post office, we're talking THEIR post office.

[alfredo]

18. No tax money goes into the USPS.

BTW, I am a retired mail carrier and current NALC member.

Every cent that comes into the Post Office comes from postage. The most recent funding problems come in part to bush pulling money out of the Post Office to help fund his tax cuts and war. E-mail has hurt too.

[flyarm]

17. i have a repug friend who's hubby owns a mailing company in nyc..

i wonder if they will be singing the repug song of joy any longer????

and giving their money to go to lunch with Cheney anymore??!!

i just wonder...

fly

[smoogatz]

20. Before we get all hysterical

let's try to remember that goods bought from the U.S. are currently an incredibly good value in much of the world, due to the exchange rate differential. If I sell a wah-wah pedal on eBay to a buyer in France, chances are he's not going to balk much at spending an extra couple of bucks to have it shipped; the shipping cost (currently about $14 or so for a 2lb package). Increases in domestic rates are much more damaging for small/medium catalog retailers and small/medium circulation print publications. I couldn't give less of a damn about the former (or the literally hundreds of catalogs they send me every year that go straight into the recycling)--but a few of the latter are very important to me, indeed.

[Wilderness Sportsman]

22. Really nice.

A great show of concern for small business.

[brentspeak]

23. kick

:kick: