John Oliver did an interesting video on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoL8g0W9gAQ&t=4s
TL;DR: Deliberate government action to defund them has resulted in them having way less money than you would expect.
TL;DR: Deliberate government action to defund them has resulted in them having way less money than you would expect.
1 - Forced to save billions over a short period of time for retirements benefits. 2 - Inability to set their own prices, like a business would.
The extra business from Amazon should have been a massive boon to USPS. But it seems the ridiculously low rate they got into, plus the couple factors above (and I am sure many others - like being required to maintain rural routes at a loss) has put them in a bad situation.