May 16, 2013 (Thursday)
“You’ve got mail!”
On this date, May 16, in 1971 first-class postage went from $0.06 to $0.08.
First class rates for the first ounce of mail started out at $0.06 in 1863, but was dropped to $0.02 in 1885, where it remained (with the exception of 1917-1918), until 1958 when it was changed to $0.04. Rates continued to rise thereafter– today a first class stamp costs $0.46.
The USPS was designed to be a self-sustaining agency, but electronic bill paying has cut into first class mailings, and the U.S. Congress has passed laws affecting the USPS’s ability to show a profit. Consequently, in the 3 months ending March 31, they lost $1.9 billion. Last year over the same period they lost $3.2 billion.
“The times, they are a’changin’.” From the Pony Express and Mail Train to Amazon.com and E-Bay, to Billpay and Electronic Deposit, not to mention UPS and Fed-ex, new ways of doing things are like an avalanche bearing down on the USPS wagon train.
Devotional Thought: I heard a preacher years ago describe a scene he had witnessed aboard a bus. He saw a young lady reach into her purse and pull out an envelope. She carefully folded back the flap and retrieved the letter from within. Opening the folds of the letter, she read it carefully from beginning to end. Then she paused, holding it lovingly in her hands. She lifted it to her lips, and kissed it. Folding it, she put it back in the envelope, held it before her for a long time, smiling and shedding a slight tear. Finally she moved the envelope with its precious message to her lips before placing it into her purse once again. The preacher said, “That should be our attitude toward the Bible, God’s love letter to us.” We can’t re-read it enough, because the message is indeed precious. God loves us all; the Bible is his letter to us, telling us so.