[danielf]

Originally Posted by Pierre

The "employer" is the tax payer

True, funds may be invested, however the full amount is underwritten by the taxpayer, if the investments fail you don't lose out as the taxpayer would pick up the slack.

That doesn't matter one bit. People in the private sector receive employer contributions as well. To simply disregard them (and arrive at a shortfall of a factor 5 picked up by the tax payer) is disingenuous in the extreme.