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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (714636)	5/11/2013 1:18:20 PM
From: i-node	2 Recommendations Respond to of 1578034

>> During Smirk's administration, Congress added a requirement that the USPS fund the pensions for 75 years out. Which means funding the retirement for employees who haven't even been born Yet . No private company operates under rules like that. I think you're reading too much liberal propaganda. All private pension funds are required to accrue past service costs annually. What the legislation required was that the USPS move from cash-method reporting WRT pension liabilities to accrual-method reporting, the same as all publicly held companies do. You and other liberals who know nothing of the subject have stuck on the 75-year planning horizon as though USPS is required to pay into fund retirement benefits for people 75 years hence. That's not how it works; a 75-year horizon is pretty standard, but the funding requirements are discounted and as I'm quite sure you're aware, anything discounted 75 years is pretty much nothing. The legislation, which was passed by unanimous consent, was enacted to prevent the taxpayers from having to bail out the postal service some years down the road (the way they're having to bail out Medicare and SS). That's why we use accrual accounting in the first place -- because cash method accounting doesn't give proper credit for future commitments. Since we've had this argument WRT SS & Medicare, I know you don't comprehend the difference between cash and accrual basis accounting. The bottom line is that USPS has overly generous pensions and health care plans. And everyone knows this. Your comment that "No private company operates under rules like that" is exactly wrong; pretty much every publicly held company operates under similar requirements. This is about protecting the taxpayers and the pension beneficiaries from a future collapse. Which is why both Democrats and Republicans supported it. >> Not if they had to operate under the same rules as the post office. This is somewhat ambiguous and it would require further definition of "same rules as the post office." The pensions would have to be brought in line with those of publicly held companies, and reasonable accommodation would have to be made for the continuing decline in usage of first-class mail -- a decline which will continue until there is little left. The USPS is hamstrung by government and it should be cut totally loose to operate as any other private business -- with some restrictions. There is absolutely no need for first class mail delivery on a daily basis. And there is no need for delivery to rural areas in a day when everyone has access to a car. But USPS's most profitable line is Express Mail, and they are largely incompetent at it when compared, for example, with FedEx or UPS. Did you ever try to track an Express Mail envelope? They don't know where the hell it is. The post office is something that, at one time, only government could do. Today, government cannot handle it and it needs to be totally privatized, complete with investors, shares of stock, and freedom to compete, win or lose.