Making a profit by delivering goods and services that consumers want to buy at a given price is the first goal of any business. If consumers aren’t interested, the business goes under. But that’s not the model the U.S. Postal Service follows.

The agency has also been running annual deficits since 2006, resulting in a net loss of $40 billion. Between 2006 and 2012, mail volume declined almost 25 percent due to the increasing use of email and e-commerce.