[kelnos]

The problem is that the USPS isn't really a "government agency". It's a weird hybrid where in some ways the USPS is more or less forced at act as a private company would. I agree that it's bonkers that a national postal service would need to "market its products", but the USPS is constantly facing funding issues (in no small part due to its weird setup), so they have to do something to... well, drum up business.

I agree that they shouldn't be using tracking code from Facebook etc. for their analytics, but they do need analytics of at least some sort. I think that should hopefully be uncontroversial.

[advael]

That wasn't always true, and changes in that direction were made to a lot of government agencies, doing things like making them pretend their budget is a business and that they need revenue streams is nonsensical and doesn't work, and I can say that with confidence because every time such changes are implemented the value of the department goes downhill fast, to the point where some people speculate that the intention of such policies is to kill those agencies. I sometimes buy that, but I also think we should acknowledge that while neoliberal political projects are often cynical and greedy, they are also often the result of incompetence. I see a certain naivete in people whose core competency has been gaining power through social influence not knowing how to actually build systems that work