Some of the only places still offering a defined benefit pension. It's a dinosaur. An EXPENSIVE dinosaur. The sooner we make government do away with pensions the better. Government employees should use 401(m) and 403(b) plans just like everyone else uses 401(k). As life expectancy gets older and older and people continue to retire in their 60s and collect those pensions for 20 or 30 years, they become a bigger and bigger burden on taxpayer funds.

That's the biggest gripe I keep hearing about the Postal Service -- that they have to fund their pensions just like every other business out there does, and it's somehow not fair. Those are the rules for a business enterprise, such as the USPS is treated. If you don't like it, then do away with the pension. Convert it to a sec. 401 defined contribution plan. That shouldn't be too hard to do. The pension is currently funded... prorate that existing funding to the employees 401 accounts and wash your hands of it.

The USPS' problem is that it too is a dinosaur. Fewer and fewer people use the USPS with the advent of the Internet. I haven't mailed a personal check in over a decade. All my bills are paid online. My business still uses the mail, but typically not me personally. There are literally tens of millions of people doing the same thing. Honestly, if the USPS cut back deliveries to three days a week (MWF), most people wouldn't notice or care. Think of the costs savings they could have by doing that.