US Postage Rate Increase to 41 cents

From http://www.usps.com/ratecase/ratecase_faqs.htm

Why are rates going up again?
The costs of doing business — for things like fuel, transportation, utilities, and health care benefits — have continued to increase. Without an increase to keep up with rising costs, we face significant losses. Many people do not know that postal operations are not subsidized by tax dollars. We rely on the sale of postal products and services to cover our operating costs.

The USPS raised prices January 8, 2006 - why another increase so soon?
The January 8, 2006 across-the-board price increase was to meet an escrow payment mandated by Public Law (PL) 108-18. This is the first time since January 2001 that we have restructured our prices. A lot has happened since then. As part of our Strategic Transformation Plan, we’ve made extensive changes to our operations and increased our efficiency. And the market has changed too – we’re using this opportunity to reflect changes in operations, and respond to market changes. We’ve done that by re-aligning our classifications (product descriptions), and their prices. We must ensure our prices for our products cover their costs.