OK, everybody tell me how heartless I am, but I don't get the "anger" this is supposedly generating:
As if voters don't have enough to be angry about this election year, the government is expected to announce this week that more than 58 million Social Security recipients will go through another year without an increase in their monthly benefits.
It would mark only the second year without an increase since automatic adjustments for inflation were adopted in 1975. The first year was this year.
[. . .]
It's not the congressional Democrats' fault, but that's the way politics works,” Biggs said. “A lot of people will feel hostile about it.”
The cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs, are automatically set each year by an inflation measure that was adopted by Congress back in the 1970s. Based on inflation so far this year, the trustees who oversee Social Security project there will be no COLA for 2011.
The COLAs are based on inflation, so if seniors aren't getting them, that means there's no inflation to speak of, right? Why isn't that a good thing? And there's no punishment when there is negative inflation -- SSAN payments merely remain the same. What am I missing herer?
Comments
You're missing that a lot of people are basically innumerate.
Not only are a lot of them innumerate, an unbelievably huge number of them have grown to expect a raise for absolutely no reason much like a lot of the work force does.
This pyramid scheme was supposed to be a 3 to 5 year (max) "safety net" to "supplement" other retirement income like savings (duh).
Our brainwashed, "nanny stated" populace has come to believe they are "entitled" to a state sponsored retirement.
The New Deal is gonna end being a very very bad deal.....
Socialism has never worked because eventually you run out of other peoples money.
The 1936 Government Pamphlet on Social Security
2% payroll tax in 1937 increasing to 6% in 1949.
$25 weekly payroll would pay 50 cents a week for a benefit at age 65 of $53 a month.
$50 weekly payroll would pay $1.00 a week for a benefit at age 65 of $74.50 a month.
Death Benefit prior to age 65 was 3.5% of OASI wages.
http://www.ssa.gov/history/ssb36.html
A 25 year old making $25 per week was to be paid a benefit of $53 a month at age 65. This required a payroll tax of 8.44% starting at age 21 and continueing till age 65.
A 25 year old making $50 per week was to be paid a benefit of $74.50 a month at age 65. This required a payroll tax of 5.93% starting at age 21 and continueing till age 65.
A 55 year old making $15 per week was to be paid a benefit of $19 a month at age 65. This required a payroll tax of 28.8%.
A. J. Altmeyer, Chairman
Social Security Board Before the House Ways and Means Committee November 27, 1944