Originally Posted by Daewoo

The government is not supposed to turn a profit with the services it provides...it is supposed to provide services that create economic value to the economy as a whole. Examples of government projects:

Interstate highways
Electrical Grid
Telephone system
Hoover Dam

The postal service does generally turn a profit. Yes, I believe they will only have a $600 million deficit for 2008 despite the much larger deficit in 2007 because if you had bothered to read the article you would have noticed that the deficit in 2007 included several billion $s in one time costs. Considering the fact that the post office, in theory, has reserves of roughly half a trillion dollars (money that have transferred to the federal government over the last 15 years...their profits) neither of the deficits in question is particularly alarming.

So, when government is "getting out of businesses way" should they take the roads, grid, and telephone system with them?? All 3 were directly funded by the federal government.