[lotsofpulp]

Only taxpayer funded defined benefit pension plans get to use 7%+. Because they have the power to use future taxpayers’ money to pay for underfunding/underperformance/corruption from the past. And obviously, politicians that would choose to increase taxes today for something that could but punted to the future would lose elections.

The Pension Protection Act of 2006 mandates that non taxpayer funded defined benefit pension plans use discount rates from high grade corporate bond yield curves, which are much lower.

https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/pension-plan-funding-se...

[LorenPechtel]

The power to use future taxpayers money isn't justification for doing so.

[lotsofpulp]

Yet that is the modus operandi of governments worldwide that need to secure the votes of the old. There is no reason the US explicit has different rules for taxpayer funded and non taxpayer funded defined benefit pensions. They are the same liabilities, the same cash flows, the same probabilities, just different political entities on the hook.

Even some non taxpayer funded defined benefit pension plans are more privy than others, depending on the political power of their beneficiaries.

https://archive.is/CJefA