"Should I Invest in Forever Stamps?" Absolutely not.


	"Should I Invest in Forever Stamps?" Absolutely not.

Kore7

5-23-2007 8:48 PM

445 views

tags:

forever stamps, stamp, stamps, forever, value, postage, postal, usps, government, inflation

Kore7 says:

By law, US postage rate increases will always lag behind the inflation rate, making the stamp's relative value worth less and less. It's just that simple.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/8cf0f0a0-7953-4f49-a0f6-59fc990aaf6a/39CD7074-6B22-48EE-8FD8-900BA6CF2300/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.slate.com/id/2166475" href="http://www.slate.com/id/2166475" style="font-size: 11px;">www.slate.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.slate.com/id/2166475"><H1>Should I Invest in "Forever" Stamps?<SPAN class="subhead">Absolutely not.</SPAN></H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.slate.com/id/2166475"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.slate.com/img/69686611-EC8F-48DB-832C-385CD21C831B" alt="Illustration by Robert Neubecker. Click image to expand." /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.slate.com/id/2166475">As of last week, the USPS had sold more than $82 million worth of the forever stamps, which lock in the 41-cent rate for eternity. One man in Pennsylvania walked into a post office and made an $8,000 <A target="_blank" href="http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/117933990366320.xml&coll=1&thispage=1">investment</A> on his own.  Should we all be stocking up?</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.slate.com/id/2166475"><P>Absolutely not. Since 1971, postal rates have increased more slowly than the actual inflation rate, as measured by the U.S. <A target="_blank" href="http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl">Consumer Price Index</A>. So, despite the numerous rate hikes over the last 36 years, stamps have actually been getting cheaper. The  20-cent stamp from 1981, for instance, would be equivalent to 45 cents in today's dollars—which makes today's rate 10 percent cheaper than it was 26 years ago. Should this historical pattern hold, you'd be paying more for today's forever stamps than you would for any stamp in the future, no matter how high the rate goes.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/39CD7074-6B22-48EE-8FD8-900BA6CF2300/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>