The "up front" part I think is what is considered onerous. Typically you'd target a result in the future and work backwards off of an average return rate (over

The "up front" part I think is what is considered onerous. Typically you'd target a result in the future and work backwards off of an average return rate (over years/decades, not months!) to ballpark a "this is what we need now to fund (with interest/returns) our pension obligations in the future". As one can see from many pensions today though, this setup often falls prey to politics or other mismanagement. I think the "other side" sees it as an attempt to say "USPS can't stay solvent, time to chuck it over to the private sector." while ignoring that other comparable businesses do not and will not have such an explicit cash requirement, which by definition makes them looks better.