Shut Down The Post Office, As It Raises Prices Again

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jul 9, 10:17AM EDT

Quick Read

Forever stamp prices have doubled since 2007, and Steiner warns USPS could collapse by October under $10 billion in annual retirement obligations.
UPS (UPS) and FedEx (FDX) would absorb USPS's profitable deliveries, but unions and Congress fiercely resist cutting its 640,000 workers and 33,780 locations.
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Shut Down The Post Office, As It Raises Prices Again — © Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

The price of Forever stamps will rise from $0.78 to $0.82 this weekend. When the stamp was first issued in 2007, the price was $.41. “Forever” stamps never expire, and the price at which they are purchased cannot be raised. According to the Post Office, A “Global Forever stamp’s value is linked to the First-Class Mail International single-piece 1-ounce letter price that is in effect on the day of mailing, regardless of when the stamp was purchased and regardless of how prices may change in the future.”

Among the reasons the Post Office gave for the increase was that it is in financial trouble, a fact that has been the case for decades. It serves no purpose in the modern world and should be shut down as soon as possible.

For years, the cost of retirement fund payments has hung around the U.S. Postal Service like an albatross. According to Brookings, “As of September 30, 2024, the US Postal Service (USPS) FERS retirement fund balance is approximately $138 billion, which represents 76% of its actuarial liability. Total retirement-related costs for the USPS are significant, reaching $10.3 billion in 2025, with annual pension funding obligations exceeding $10 billion.”

U.S. Postmaster General David Steiner told the House Oversight subcommittee that handles the Post Office that it could run out of money by October if it has to make more retirement payments and related payments to the federal government.

Donald Trump has suggested the best way to solve the problem is to privatize the Post Office. In March 2025, he said, “It’s an idea a lot of people have had for a long time. We’re looking at it.”

The options Steiner gave the committee should have been adopted years ago. These include ending six-day delivery and cutting some of its 33,780 locations. These, incidentally, include offices in towns with under 3,000 residents.

The Postal Service would also need to cut its workforce of 640,000. That might cause a problem. There are 533,000 “career workers.” The American Postal Workers Union represents 200,000 Post Office workers. That means large layoffs could cause a fight. And, Congressmen are not fond of the idea that a Post Office in their districts might be closed.

Among other things, it would not be affordable to deliver mail even five days a week. That would end. And all of the locations could disappear. How many people use the Post Office regularly? How many visit a Post Office? On the other hand, how many people use email instead of regular mail? How many people use email attachments instead of sending documents via mail? How many companies accept payment online?

Some portion of the delivery service would likely be taken over by UPS (NYSE: UPS | UPS Price Prediction ) and FedEx (NYSE: FDX)–at least the deliveries that are profitable.

It’s time to sunset the Post Office, which is now about two and a half centuries old. Who really needs the mail? Not enough people to have an organization that loses billions of dollars.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.