Who Benefits, Who?

Ask the question.  Ask as you observe the continual assault on things that actually work, even things that work relatively cheaply.  Assaults by those who, despite all the demonstrated mess of contractors and privatization, want to continue to privatize more.  People like to deceive themselves that privatizing brings so many more efficiencies and cost savings.  It usually doesn’t, and any comparisons are usually slanted anyway.  For instance, the assault on the USPS.  W and his ilk passed the Postal Act of 2006 which mandated that USPS prefund 100 percent of future retirees’ health benefits.  No other government or quasi-govt agency has to do this, nor any publicly traded corporation.  This was just an obvious attempt to first weaken the USPS, so that it could be carved to pieces.  If this law were lifted, USPS would be turning a profit.  And this bellowing about how the USPS retirement system is dramatically underfunded is agenda-driven too: One has to compare both the FERS and CSRS systems of the USPS, and in the net accounting, it’s pretty favorable (and certainly so in comparison to a lot of other places).  And one more thing: USPS employees are not making a killing.  Sure, a few supervisors and management types are doing well, maybe excessively so.  But the rank and file are just that, pretty average for the most part.  And if you had to do their job, you wouldn’t be so envious.