No the government did NOT make a bet... It played the pyramid game and succeeded with the populace - hey vote for me and I will raise your benefits. You know that politics was the motivating factor.
All of this was and is a scam from day one - we have just finally figured it out. At no time did any offering of benefits actually come with your taxes. You were happy to claim your extra benefits without looking to the future, as most did...
Most postal workers at thetime protested being added to Medicare coverage. For us it amounted to a TAX on current pay with actually no future benefit.
Turns out it was an additional tax with no benefit.
I think you missed the part about the transfer of personnel from Post Office Department to USPS ~ we have our own law that specifies what our benefit package is to be equal to and that carries through retirement. Medicare is not an acceptable substitute ~ we already had 'better" and we still have "better" and all that happened was we paid money to the government to take care of you.
You joined late, eat it up!