Today marks yet another postage increase from the U.S. Postal Service! It’s now 44 cents for a first-class stamp to mail a standard letter. I can remember when stamps were just 19 cents each, and you still had to lick them to get them to stick… those were the gummy-tongued days. Stamps are self-adhesive now, but what does this rate increase mean for you, and is the post office still a viable entity in these troubled times?

Well, for starters, first-class mail isn’t the only rate going up. Large envelopes, parcels, postcards and other types of mail are increasing in price, too. The Business Pundit blog lists a few of these increases and links to more of them.

What about those “forever” stamps? If you bought “forever” stamps (the ones with the Liberty Bell on them), you can still use them without tacking on an additional 2-cent stamp. The point of the “forever” distinction is that, no matter how high postage gets, those stamps are still usable for a standard letter. But before you start thinking that you can buy a giant pile of forever stamps and sell them for a profit when the postage rates go up again, read this post by Phil Izzo at the Wall Street Journal blog about how postage rates can’t go up faster than the rate of inflation. So even though this is the fifth postage hike since 2000, the rates aren’t actually going up that fast, and you probably can’t make any money stockpiling forever stamps at the current rate and selling them later.

How about if you just want to mail stuff? Many people have long complained about the cost and hassle of postage, and when you combine the cost with the impact that all that mailed paper has on the environment, it’s no surprise that many consumers are turning to cheaper, more environmentally-gentle methods of correspondence. Online bill pay systems eliminate the need to mail bills to the power company, phone company, etc. each month. E-cards and e-vites are a cheap, eco-friendly way to invite friends and family to special events or to send well-wishes. And of course, email has become the go-to communication method for many people because of its ease, speed and inexpensive nature. We may not be a paperless society yet, but  it’s clear that many aspects of our lives are indeed more paperless than ever.

So why have snailmail at all? A large percentage of the mail sent today is junk mail anyway, and that accounts for roughly 100 million trees cut down each year. Why not eliminate snail mail altogether? The staff at wowOwow.com posed this question, receiving some interesting responses. Some readers pointed out that 44 cents to send a letter cross-country is still a good value, and another pointed out that the etiquette of sending handwritten thank-you notes can never be supplanted by email. Perhaps the best answer, though, was this comment by the user Green Tears: “After sifting through bills, junk mail, catalogs and magazines, whose face doesn’t light up at the sight of a piece of handwritten personal correspondence?” No matter how electronic and paperless we get, the value of a piece of personal mail still matters, perhaps more so now than ever.

While postage and personal letters are here to stay, we can still do something to stop junk mail from clogging up our mailboxes and our landfills. Sign up for the Privacy Council’s list removal service to get your name taken off the major direct marketing lists. When the junk mail stops coming, the only mail you’ll get will be the kind that actually matters to you. Sign up for the service by clicking here!