Submitted by CARPE DIEM

Unconscionably Excessive Stamp Prices?

Over the last 89 years, the average retail price of gasoline has increased almost 14X, from 25.5 cents per gallon in 1919 to $3.517 per gallon in 2008, according to annual price data from the EIA. Over the same period, the price of a first-class stamp in the U.S. has increased 21X, from 2 cents in 1919 to 42 cents in 2008 (starting Monday, May 12), according to historical stamp price data available here. The chart above compares the two prices using an index that is equal to 100 in 1919 for both series.

If stamp prices had increased over time at “only” the rate of gas prices, a first-class stamp would only cost only 27.6 cents today instead of 42 cents.

When gas prices rose last year, Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-MI) introduced “The Federal Price Gouging Prevention Act,” which would make it a crime to “sell crude oil or gasoline at a price that is unconscionably excessive.” Shouldn’t we now investigate “unconscionably excessive stamp prices”? Monopoly has its privileges.

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