Who is Anne?
Compare to like things and it is.
Auntie Anne, Queen of Pretzels, and apparently your patron saint.
I AM comparing like to like. If you want to look at pure numbers and not the benefits that come with them, as you would like to do with trade deficits, then by the same standard, we should have closed the USPS years ago. But as you said, they provide a service, so the numbers not adding up don't tell the whole story. Economics is more than the numbers in trade. A $7B deficit doesn't take into account the jobs created for the country on the "losing" end of the trade deficit, nor any of the other benefits which may come with the relationship. Trade is often a loss leader for greater gains.
Our wealth is disappearing not because we have trade deficits, but because our biggest deficits are with countries who provide little-to-no other benefits. We also have a welfare/handout issue in this country which isn't helping us, in addition to education problems and the fact that we w don't make a whole lot of anything here anymore, but we're already deep into the weeds here.