The first thing I thought of when I heard about the new US Postal Service “green stamps” was this logo at right.
I suppose I’ve dated myself identifying this, but I can’t help it. For the baby boomer generation, S&H Green Stamps are as familiar a logo as Coca-Cola and the always entertaining roadside Burma-shave messages. According to Wikipedia, during the 1960s, the S&H rewards catalog printed by the company was the largest publication in the United States and the company issued three times as many stamps as the U.S. Postal Service. So, it seems ironic to have USPS issuing “green stamps” now.
When the USPS decided to issue their own “green stamps”, I figured the first thing they would hit on would be global warming and CO2 reduction. After all, they have a green page at USPS.com and they have climate change figured greatly with a carbon footprint calculator. Have a look: http://www.usps.com/green/
Surprisingly though, when you watch the promotional video, there’s no stamp that says anything about global warming or CO2. Even the official USPS press release has no mention of global warming, climate change, or carbon footprint. That’s just strange. Maybe they realize that it has become “Voldemort” in Washington.
USPS created a whole new plate of “forever” stamps that will hold their value even if the rates go up….only one problem, the message is just a leeetle bit off where most consumers want to be. Watch the video:
I think they need to work on the message just a bit more. The “forever” message on this stamp (and others) was really just a bit too much I think.
I’m fine with energy conservation, I practice it myself. But really, forever is a long time. I had to laugh at the juxtapositioning of the message and how they are revealed in the video. The other one that made me cringe was “use public transportation”…forever.
Perhaps it was so familiar to them, they missed the unintentional gaffe. Only a bureaucrat could miss this silliness. Or, maybe it’s a new brand of not-so-subliminal messaging. Either way, I don’t think it will work.
As George Monbiot recently put it:
It is a campaign not for abundance but for austerity. It is a campaign not for more freedom but for less. Strangest of all, it is a campaign not just against other people, but against ourselves.
Of course I’m sure the USPS will be just as successful at promoting this new green message via “forever stamps” as they are with their primary mission:
U.S. Postal Service Lost Record $8.5 Billion in 2010
USPS lost 2.2 Billion in one quarter
I think it’s time to stamp out the pseudo-environmental Greenie Religion. Forever.
Is there really one with laundry on it, tinted a lime/mint sort of colour? Yes foks, they made a stamp for ‘green-washing’ 🙂
Speaking of the USPS and Federal Express…
As I recall, Federal Express ended up pulling that commercial because of union complaints.
“As George Monbiot recently put it:
It is a campaign not for abundance but for austerity. It is a campaign not for more freedom but for less. Strangest of all, it is a campaign not just against other people, but against ourselves.”
Ronald Reagan put it another way, you cannot conserve yourself into prosperity.
The subtle truth behind both these observations is that in a free market, supply and demand is always in balance. But when we allow government to pretend that it can mitigate supply or price issues by political intervention, then people start to direct their energies at manipulating the political considerations. Instead of focusing on improving efficiency (to lower costs) or creating wealth (so as to be able to afford more), energy is directed in a political direction, not an economic one.
Sadly, the bigger the government, the more it intrudes and the more our time is devoted to political matters and not economic ones. This can be seen in the uproar over the fact that General Electric had billions in profit but did not owe any taxes. Management found it more productive, at least in the short run, to have 600 accountants, lawyers and lobbyists than to have 600 engineers and production line workers.
This is an important point that conservative and libertarian candidates for office must bring to the public when they make the case for reducing the size of government.
That is a redux of the Carter Administration’s approach.
I think that the criticism of the ‘forever’ on the stamps is just a misreading of intention. All postage stamps have the ‘value’ on them, like 44 cents. All ‘forever’ stamps have ‘forever’ as the value…. This complaint would be similar to claiming the the US Flag stamp secretly demeans the flag by placing its value as 44 cents.
All of the messages are good, middle-of-the-road, reasonable suggestions, most of which I personally agree with and have followed for the last fifty years. I admit, I do not, for the most part, ride public transportation, which in most areas (outside of dense urban areas) is not really useful.
Our Post Office mail system here in the UK comes in for a great deal of criticism about how it works and how it is always losing money. I have found that their service is better than good, it is excellent; I can post a letter or package today and, for a fairly reasonable sum, next-day delivery to almost anywhere in the UK is guaranteed.
The Top Gear television program had an episode where The TG Team tried to beat a mailed letter from Cornwall to Northern Scotland – and lost!
Kip Hansen says:
May 15, 2011 at 11:19 am
I think that the criticism of the ‘forever’ on the stamps is just a misreading of intention.
It’s called irony. Look it up.
As for the messages themselves, most are just feel-good green-washing tripe, having little, if anything to do with environment. It amounts to an insidious type of Big Government nannyism, cloaked in green.
Global Warming and CO2 may not have been mentioned, but the recent Catalogue
states (the USPS is going) “To cut greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by 2020,”.
Why do otherwise worthwhile environmental suggestions have to be linked (albeit subtly) to a worthless, but very expensive goal?
I’m surprised that the USPS hasn’t gone the “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em!” route and transformed into a secure ISP.
I’d pay a bit of money per month for super-secure email with USPS involvement….they could make “Nigerian prince” phishing emails a federal crime, enhance cybersecurity etc.
They are dead & don’t even know it yet. It happens all the time….pony express, Indian guards on trains, etc. Good riddance, get rid of the massive real estate & salary to push dead tree-parts around. That will save a lot of carbon.
it is a wise man who remembers that forever is a long time
and a wiser one that knows that never is just as long…
A boot on your face…forever