Lick Stamp Inflation

Regarding the upcoming increase in postage (yet again) and the U.S. Postal Service’s continuing debt (“Stamp Price to Rise, but Post Office Still Sinking,” March 23), my high school history teacher had the answer more than 20 years ago. How about soliciting corporate sponsorship for postage stamps?

Let Toyota or Heinz or Kellogg design and pay for the stamp. The consumer can pay a small percentage of the cost, while the corporate sponsor can pay the bulk of it and use the stamp for advertising. I would suffer Tony the Tiger on my stamp for a 10-cent rate. And as for the philatelists out there, we can have “vanity stamps” that can be purchased at the full price, so that we still have the option of purchasing the more aesthetic stamps (though I am sure Toyota, Listerine or whoever could come up with some snazzy designs).

Jeff Bernhardt

Valley Glen