@Disillusioned: that is indeed the image that certain groups want to shape of the USPS, nevertheless, the USPS is deeply in debt, which is funded by the tax payer off course. They do funny tricks with the books, such as lending against their pension funds (which would be illegal for any other corporation in the US) and then having Congress bail out the pension fund, so it looks like they run even when they in fact raid the assets they promised their employees. The pension fund alone, due to unions is $120B in debt and missed their last 2 $60B payment (so they are actually closer to 2-300B in debt. The post office deficit from running services is $10B/year. Effectively the revenue to the post office needs to double or even quadruple overnight without increasing spending, this would make it cheaper to send most mail through FedEx or UPS.
I’m sure you heard about the electric vehicle boondoggle that they are forced to buy. The postmaster generals say it won’t work, yet Congress purchased millions of dollars worth of vehicles that have no infrastructure to charge. All those things come out of our pockets.
If you wonder why the politicians keep lying about the post office, look at the plans they have for it. Janet Yellen proposed the USPS to run a federal bank. They would use the deposits to fund government spending. It’s an endless bucket of money that nobody has the guts to just outright say: you’re on your own now, go compete like UPS and FedEx do because they’d be broke in a month.