Postage Stamps - Can we entertain this topic as a possible budget cut?

Turn on the news and you'll most likely hear more "doom and gloom". Will the automakers be able to make keep their heads above water, even with astronomical bailouts? Is Lillian Vernon soon to become one of many catalog retailers who are no longer in business? What banks are left after the dust settles - will it be (no, no!) one national, government bank? (I left them long ago and have been with a credit union for almost 20 years.) How can I spend my Circuit City gift card? Do I dare look at my Mutual Funds statements? Oh well, too late - and I'm not pleased at all nor surprised. As you know, the list can, and does, go on and on . . .


Many of my friends (you may be one of them or related to one) have lost a job, are in fear of losing their job or are saying goodbye to their friends as get in the unemployment line. At my school, we're unsure of how all of the County educational budget cuts will directly affect each of us - so it's a little unsettling.


All of this makes me wonder - what are some proactive ways the government can cut some expenses? Yeah, I know there's a lot of "fat", but I was thinking about specific programs. I began to ponder the different industries and how they've changed. Very few of us use a cassette tape player anymore and the younger generation is most comfortable with their I-Pod. What about how we receive correspondence? Many of us opt out of paper bank statements and bills and receive them online. Email and social networking, such as Facebook and MySpace have become commonplace. If you want to apply for a job, well, you better have an email account and access to a computer with an Internet connection so you can apply the only way the company will accept an application - online. Aha - I have an idea . . . and it relates to something lightweight, sticky and fragile, about the size of a dime - a stamp!


Here are my thoughts on the stamp. Wait - before I go any further, I realize that the Post Office is supposed to be self-supporting (but have you heard recently they're looking at cutting mail delivery down from 6 days to 5? - huh, should have thought of that one!)

I realize there are different stamps for different denominations and types of mail but why do we have to make new stamps? (Here's a link regarding the new stamp process http://www.usps.com/communications/organization/csac.htm). We have what is termed as the "forever" stamp. Couldn't we make forever stamps for the different denominations and no longer have committees to vote on new stamps, create new lithographs to print the stamps, etc.? There could be pain felt by stamp collectors but I think that's a small sacrifice for those collectors to make.

To introduce the permanent, once and for all "forever" stamp concept, we could enlist Randy Travis to kick it off by volunteering to sing "Forever and Ever, Amen" on the Today Show and have him update his MySpace Music account with the new stamp. What would the stamp look like? Currently the 1st class stamp is the liberty bell - we could keep that picture and to be politically correct/cool splash "4 Eva" ( Go to http://www.noslang.com/dictionary.php for clarification) across the bell :(. We'd be streamlining the postage stamp industry plus cutting millions of dollars - and maybe even re-energize Randy's career!