Do you have any other examples? The USPS isn’t a nationalized company, it was always a branch of the government. It seems like the USPS is only in crisis because it has long been a political target with especially conservatives trying to sabotage it in order to demonstrate the downsides of public services. But the requirement to pre-fund retiree benefits was eliminated in 2022, is that what you’re referring to with the 10s of billions in pensions? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_Service_Reform_Act_of_2...

Nationalized industries are nationalized because they shouldn't have to care about profits and losses beyond a basic duty to use resources efficiently. The existence of the nationalized service is deemed to be so important that it must be run by the state to prevent any possible instability or interruptions.

With that being said, the situation of the USPS is not simple - it's been suffering political interference from elected officials for literally centuries. A very good example of why giving too much oversight power to elected officials and having too many political appointees is very dangerous.

The USPS is only in perpetual crisis because people who are deeply against public goods passed a law requiring them to pre-fund retirement benefits 75 years in advance [0] which is utterly ridiculous.

[0]: https://apwu.org/usps-fairness-act

> ON the hook

Weird to see this framing for something that was promised as a condition of employment.

The USPS gets me my mail regularly. Not sure what else it should be doing. And yes, paying people pensions you promised them is a good thing to do and has nothing to do with mismanagement. Taking the money you had already promised for pensions to instead pay shareholders or executives seems to be mismanagement to me.