Expect Fewer Stamps On Your Mail

There will probably be even less use of postage stamps now that USPS rate is 46 cents if you use a postage meter and 49 cents if you use stamps. It's an extension of the war on cash, which is a part of the war on privacy. They started with EZPass, charging higher tolls if you pay in cash, and then when people kept on paying in cash, they switched to electronic tolling as an excuse to record your registration plate number and the date and time your vehicle passed that point. Postage meters allow Big Brother to keep track of how much you spend on postage.

Pardon me, but your tinfoil hat is tilted a bit.

In my opinion, Somebody Smart's observation has some merit. I'm not sure about the term "war on cash and privacy," but there is a noticeable effort by businesses and government to encourage non-cash payment. The loss of privacy has been noted for years. We give up some of it just by using the internet.

I've also found myself paying for stuff with credit card much more frequently than in the past. Not sure about a war on cash, but it sure is easier to pay with a card than with cash or check. I still like cash, but don't carry much of it anymore, and I still use stamps on my letter mail. I, however, rarely fight the postal clerks and their quick use of their postage meters anymore when mailing a package.

Don

The war on cash has been aided by the fact that you do not see a discount for cash. This is an effort by financial firms discouraging cash- skimming up to 4% from all credit transactions -- and hoping you pay those high rates if you do not pay in full each month.

Don't have no idea where all you live, but here you get a discount when you pay cash for your gas.


Peter

The demise of cash has been predicted for decades but this is not supported by the facts. One good way to understand cash use is to look closely at how much of it is in circulation. The amount of cash floating around in the USA has risen a strong 5% per year since 2007 and an even stronger growth of 7% per year worldwide. (In the USA and between the yeasr 2007 and 2012, cash in circulation grew 42%.)

Even more interesting is the fact that multiple studies show that people still value cash more than digital money, even though both have exactly the same value. And in the USA the public still highly resists dropping the penny despite being worth less than they cost to produce.

So I see only one scenario where cash goes away, that is if we have some sort of mass global extinction event (meteor hit, pulsar hit, some sort of solar disruption) and the entire earth's infrastructure is lost. The obviously cash would become meaningless and a commodity like salt or ammunition would become the preferred monetary medium. (With no electricity food preservation would make salt the highest valued material.)
Don

Edit to add: If folks are worried about 'loss of privacy' then they should forget about personal info like social security cards. The real threat is the loss of privacy due to DNA. Once global DNA databases are populated we will all become uniquely identified. While our phone might currently tell others where we are; consider the DNA you shed where ever you go. (You can leave you phone at home, but your DNA cells remain on everything you touch, every place you walk.) Now that is scary.

The bottom line is that "Big Brother" doesn't care how much anyone spends on postage.

I occasionly get mail with recent USPS commeratives on them and save the full cover in a box for future collectors. I also prefer to send mail using USPS commemoratives when sending out items I sell online. I use only current issues and resupply through the USPS website and pay through PayPal.

I'm sure my customers appreciate the use of these. What I'm getting tired of is when I receive packages/envelopes from other dealers with older US commemoratives.

If the customer wants the item tracked, then I'll print using one of the auction services and charge them extra for this service.

Federal agents follow me wherever I go, and I think they're following you, too. :-)

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. :) What's wrong with getting older commemoratives on packages? I'm always happy to see them.

+1. What's the danger, that we'll be sent to "reeducation camps" for not buying enough postage? I hear Arbeitslager William F. Bolger (For The Insufficiently Postal) is a particularly terrible camp. Don't want to get sent to that one. Or worse, maybe they'll insert subliminal mind-control messages onto stamps, turning us all into zombies. Actually, come to think of it, maybe they ARE printing subliminal mind control messages onto stamps, it would help explain my obsession with the things.

Hate to break it to you, but they don't need an excuse for that. It's been being done for years and it's perfectly legal.

LPRs (mobile license plate readers) have been being installed on police cars for quite some time. They are directional cameras that can scan 200 registration per minute. Parked cars, moving cars, same direction, other direction doesn't matter.

(Notice the two boxes on the trunk)


They check for stolen vehicles, suspended registrations, no insurance, expired registrations, wanted persons associated with that vehicle, etc. If something comes up an alert pops up on the officers laptop within seconds along with the exact GPS location and direction of travel, if any.

It also logs every location of a tag for quite sometime. Say a tag number is gotten by a witness at a bank robbery, they can go through the logs and see if that tag is in there. If it's been seen at a particular location 30 times in the last two months.... guess where some LEOs will be going...

Bobby....
There is a work-around for North Carolina…
When you own an antique car many states usually have some license plate provision to allow owners to run the plate of the year of their car. So if you own a 1950 car, you can run 1950 license plates. Most states simply require you to register the antique plates as a personalized plate.

But in NC, you can mount the old plate on the car and just keep the real plate in the trunk or under your front seat of your car! I have always thought that I could go rob a bank and make a get-away in my 1951 Studebaker!
Don

Don, but there are not many 51 Studebakers on the road either!

Back to the elimination of cash comments. Try using cash on a Delta flight for something as simple as a snack or drink. Won't happen! I tested the policy a few years back when Delta first implemented. I took possession of a wine split and intentionally opened it before completing the transaction. I then handed the attendant a $10. She said I needed a credit card. I promptly showed her the wording on the bill stating that "this note is legal tender for all debts public and private". Evidently US Treasury statements do not apply to Delta. Rather than debate the legality of Delta's position she gave me the wine.

Frankly I'm far more suspicious of places that don't take plastic and only take cash, for obvious reasons. It's not some consipiracy or "war" against cash, retailers have simply decided that the benefits of electronic payments outweigh the costs of the transaction fees. You don't have to worry about keeping change, having someone count (or miscount) the receipts, make a deposit, etc. You don't have to worry about employee theft, counterfeit bills, or armed robberies. And research shows that the average person spends significantly more when using a credit card than when they use cash. Retailers are simply voting with their wallets.