That's the fun thing: contrary to public opinion, they aren't legally a government entity. But contrary to their marketing materials, they aren't truly indepe

That's the fun thing: contrary to public opinion, they aren't legally a government entity. But contrary to their marketing materials, they aren't truly independent either. They get a huge amount of money from the government (the post office claims this isn't a subsidy since they provide services for the money), and they need Congress to approve efforts to raise prices, lower costs, change service, etc. Years ago I tried to keep track of the various distinctions between different non-government organizations (e.g., the Federal Reserve is one form of a government corporation, while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are a different form) until I realized that the distinctions almost never mattered. How important is it that the Federal Reserve issues stock, given that the stock can't be sold and provides no voting rights? Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac weren't backed by the full faith and credit of the government, but got bailouts anyway (largely because they followed Congress' bidding as far as policy was concerned). The post office has been losing billions for years, and it doesn't take much to realize most people expect it to get a government bailout that would never be offered to UPS or FedEx.