Postal Pensions and Politics (Norwich ListServ)

Do we need a postal service? Has electronic communication really superseded the need for a national snail mail system? I have no idea.

I do know there's been enough change in the past twenty years to make all predictions for the next twenty years highly suspect.

Indeed, I find all the categorical statements blaming one side or another; pronouncing some clear understanding of future pension liabilities; and presuming an authoritative grasp of our current fiscal and economic struggles equally -- highly -- suspect.

I challenge any reader here to explain to us all how the pension liability actuarial calculations are done for several hundred thousand active and retired postal employees.

And then tell us why the most recent OPM actuarial calculations are more authoritative than those done five, ten and twenty years ago that either overstated or understated (depending upon your political constituency) current liabilities.

I do know many -- if not all -- private companies that still maintain defined benefit (pension) plans are currently facing federally-mandated additional pension payments spread over ten years -- standard federal pension funding practice -- because years of low interest rates have increased predicted pension liabilities for the future.

Most private-sector companies have shifted away from defined benefit (pension) plans to defined contribution (401(k)/403-type) plans precisely because these defined-benefit plans are an uncappable liability that stretches 75 years into the future.

As Stan Williams has pointed out here in the past regarding school budgets, defined benefits plans are still the norm for the public sector, in stark contrast to private sector trends.

In fact, the USPS has been trying to shut down their defined benefit plan in favor of a defined-contribution plan for some time. For political reasons, the USPS has not been able to garner congressional support for this change.

For those who think public sector unions are using their political influence to secure wages and benefits far beyond most private sector employees, the USPS is a poster child for overdue reform.

For those who think union critics and small-government fanatics are manufacturing a fiscal crisis to break public sector unions, the USPS is a poster child for political zealotry run amok.

For those of us who find both sides prone to overwrought rhetoric; for those of us weary of having complicated, genuinely difficult policy issues painted black-and-white, this is all pretty depressing.