| Rasmussen Reports: 68% Favor Cut in Mail Delivery To Keep Stamp Prices Down |
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14/07/2010 15:25 (569 Day 16:16 minutes ago) | |||||
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The FINANCIAL -- Roughly half of American Adults think postage stamps cost too much, and they're willing to sacrifice a day of delivery to keep the cost of stamps down.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 49% of Adults believe the cost of stamps is already too high, even as the U.S. Postal Service hopes for a two-cent hike in the cost of a first-class stamp in January. Only five percent (5%) feel the cost of stamps is too low. Forty-two percent (42%) say stamp prices are about right.
Sixty-eight percent (68%) would rather see mail delivery cut from six days to five days a week to avoid an increase in stamp prices. Twenty-six percent (26%) disagree and are willing to pay more for stamps to hold onto that extra day of delivery. These findings show little change from early February of last year.
But when asked if the Postal Service should cut delivery down to just three days a week to avoid raising stamp prices, only 25% of adults are on board. Most (53%) would rather the Postal Service keep delivering six days a week and raise the price of stamps.
The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on July 9-10, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Two-out-of-three Americans (66%) rate the post office's performance as good or excellent. Just eight percent (8%) say it's dong a poor job. This high level of approval is consistent with previous surveys, even at Christmas time when the wait for service often makes many Americans unhappy.
Women are more likely than men to think the cost of stamps is too high. But both sexes are equally willing to lose one day of delivery to keep stamp prices down but are not inclined to reduce delivery to three days a week.
Fifty-one percent (51%) of entrepreneurs and 48% of private company employees feel the cost of a postage stamp is too high, compared to just 38% of government employees.
Faced with a $7 billion budget gap, the Postal Service is seeking approval from Congress to increase the cost of a first-class stamp to 46 cents.
In early May of last year, seventy-four percent (74%) of Americans said it was at least somewhat likely that the price of a first-class postage stamp will be $1 or more within the next 10 years, including 46% who said it’s Very Likely.
Earlier this year, the USPS proposed ending Saturday delivery to reduce its growing budget deficit, and 58% of Americans thought that was a good idea.
Half of Americans (50%) would rather cut back the number of days mail is delivered than have the federal government subsidize the U.S. Postal Service to maintain its current level of service.
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