It isn't a 'kinda grey area'. It's black and white. Here's the tipoff, as you wrote it above:
"it is wholly owned by the government"
well, true, but it's a government 'private' agency who's CEO, the PostmasterGeneral, is appointed by the Board of the US Postal Service, and does not have to be approved by the Senate, as opposed to a 'public' government agency, such as the Internal Revenue Service, which is under congressional oversight, the head of which is not a "CEO" and who does have to be approved by the Senate.
The fact that they outsource some of their work to FedEx and UPS is no different than the Air Force outsourcing to Lockheed and Boeing.... or the many other outsourcing the the Federal Gov't does in every department and agency.
Agreed. The point in mentioning the USPS routinely outsources to the OP is that, while the OP may complain about 'tracking' in the USPS, the reality is, it's usually not only the USPS that's involved in shipping that package. So, is it the USPS that isn't providing up-to-date online tracking info, or did the sub just not put it in? Kinda hard to boycott if one doesn't know who they're actually boycotting. And, really, who cares if you get it in two or three business days anyway as long as you get it?
And it's not really the only monopoly allowed under US law either but that's another book.
HA! Well, there's amtrak, I guess, only, twice as many people ride on private passenger trains than on amtrak each year, so not much of a monopoly anywhere else but the northeast corridor maybe...not sure what else there is?
Regards, TTRP