In my last blog, I commented on a July 11 article by Mary Walsh of the New York Times on the crisis relative to horrifically large pension and retiree medical obligations for government employees.  Coincidentally, as I traveled to and from Europe between July 15 and 20, I had an opportunity to catch up on reading, and I read Roger Lowenstein’s great book While America Aged.

In this book, Lowenstein details the history of three out-of-control pension and retiree medical commitments, the commitment by the Big 3 automakers to their employees and retirees, the commitment to the Transit Workers Union and other municipal unions in New York City, and the commitment to San Diego’s municipal workers.  He draws broader conclusions from these analyses, consistent with Mary Walsh’s.  As Lowenstein puts it on page 1:  “America has a crisis of epidemic proportions.  The fabric of the nation’s pension system is collapsing – at the very moment when the American population is rapidly aging.” (more…)

In the July 11 New York Times there was an article on the serious issue of state and local government pension liability, and the debate about the extent to which the Government Accounting Standards Board should require governments to reflect pension and retiree health liabilities on their income statements.

I was pleased to see this issue get coverage because it is one of the biggest issues of our time. We are an aging society, and like every other developed country, we are facing the dual challenge of meeting our commitments to the elderly, while at the same time being able to meet commitments to the rest of our population. Before we can address the dual challenge, we need honesty and transparency as to what the commitments to our elderly populations are going to cost us. (more…)

In the July 11 issue of the New York Post, there was an article which highlighted the fact that the number of calls to the New York City 311 hotline requesting city service support for smoking cessation has tripled with the increase in taxes that have made a pack of cigarette cost around $10 in some communities.

I have always believed that cigarette and alcohol consumption could be cut significantly by increasing the price of these items. For hard-core addicts, price increases are probably less effective, except for those already predisposed to quit. But high prices are clearly a deterrent to those who are considering starting to smoke or drink, and, over time, reducing the health and other costs of cigarette smoking and alcohol abuse will reap large dividends in reducing the incidence of chronic and acute health conditions. (more…)

I want to begin by thanking Doctor Gerberding and her team for convening and hosting this extremely important conference. I come to you as a leader of a company, Pitney Bowes that defined employee health and well-being as a core value even before I became CEO in 1996.

Our mail stream businesses have always required a high degree of subject matter expertise and relationship-building with postal services and customers that take many years to learn and master. Therefore, for several decades, we had been a generous company in delivering benefits that rewarded and encouraged employee loyalty and commitment.

In 1990, this commitment to employee health and well-being was being challenged by our inability to continue offering health plans that essentially provided medical benefits without meaningful employee contributions in terms of premiums, co-pays and deductibles. Our costs were increasing at an alarmingly high 14% per year, and we were not delivering a high degree of employee satisfaction. When I became head of human resources in 1990, I had the unenviable task of committing us to a long-term course of action that required higher employee premiums, co-pays and deductibles, but I also recognized that we had to maintain and/or increase employee satisfaction with our benefit offerings, or we were going to lose one of our key talent retention tools. (more…)

In the July 1 New York Times, there was an interesting article about the effort of the Congressional Black Caucus to get the addition of menthol to cigarettes banned because menthol cigarettes are the choice of 75% of African-American smokers. There is a clear recognition that menthol and other sweeteners added to cigarettes make them more attractive to vulnerable populations, like young people, minorities with health risks that make smoking health-threatening and young women.

When I read this article, it occurred to me that the misuse of menthol and other sweeteners to attract people to cigarettes can be turned on its head to make healthy foods more attractive to eat. When our younger son, who is now 17 years old, was under 10 years old, we had a great deal of difficulty getting him to eat anything other than junk food. We had particular difficulty getting him to eat green vegetables. (more…)

Last week, we posted on the Pitney Bowes web site at www.pb.com/mailimpact a white paper detailing preliminary findings on the environmental impact of mail. Several points stand out when we look at the study:

• Mail is a relatively minor source of carbon footprint compared with common personal and household activities, such as taking a two-minute shower, which has the same carbon footprint as receiving 40 pieces of letter mail.
• Electronic communications, on the whole, have a carbon footprint similar to paper-based communications
• As noted on pages 21 and 22, the ultimate question is not whether mail or paper-based communications have an environmental impact that could be reduced. No one questions the need to reduce the carbon footprint of mail or paper-based communications, and the paper talks about sustainability initiatives. (more…)