Got my SocSec raise for next year...

[Bigmack]

My wife and I - together - will get $57 a month more than this year. Inflation rates and cost-of-living increases must be very low, then....ya think? Sure am glad that food and fuel costs haven't gone up!

We're not rich, but we'll be (more than) OK. Imagine the folks just getting by on Social Security, with nothing to back it up.

(Please don't bother posting if you're going to tell us SS is on it's last legs. We all know the easy fixes.... well... not easy for the rich.

[undeterred]

1. The increase in the price of gas has made

so many other things go up. That won't be enough for a lot of people.

[ThomWV]

2. My wife's went up $16, think of it as 3 gallons of gas or 4 pounds of chicken

[shimmergal]

3. I totally agree. So why

isn't there any senior citizens movement for a significant one-time upward adjustment, based on the rising food and fuel costs? Under the present formula for figuring COL, I think these are actually excluded.

We need a wave of demand for a "raise" in SS. Politicians fear the power of older citizens, because they're the ones who always show up to vote. Why can't we make this work to keep up with the costs of basic needs?

[scarletwoman]

5. "Politicians fear the power of older citizens..." Well, if enough of them die off,

the politicians won't have to fear them anymore.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. The lying about inflation has become absurd.

In fact the outright lying about just about everything is reaching late soviet pravda proportions.

[monmouth]

6. The increase I believe was 02.3%, the lowest evah!! $21 increase for me..Whoopeee..n/t

[TahitiNut]

10. Not true. It was 2.1% in 2003, 1.4% in 2002, 1.3% in 1998, and 2.1% in 1997.

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/colaseries.html

[Lugnut]

12. That's what I'm getting.

I can put a half tank of gas in my car with that. Whoopie! :sarcasm:

[caseycoon]

7. Just checked with my hubby...

Our increase... together... is $30. How impressive!
NOT!

[Robin Hood 991]

8. My real estate taxes went up $2,500 this year

I guess retired people living on SS could not afford to keep their homes in this area

[TahitiNut]

9. It's indexed to WAGES, not just Cost of Living. It shows that labor is getting screwed.

Social Security is closely tied to EQUITABLE LABOR COMPENSATION. Social Security taxes pay for benefits - and those taxes are a percentage of payroll wages. Wages go up and benefits go up. Simple as that. It's all about the "ownership class" vs. "working class" and the steadily increasing chasm between the affluent and labor. People at the top end spend, too ... and their spending is part of what increases prices - ergo increased cost of living.

Note: The "index" they use is CPI-W (where the "W" reflects urban workers). That index uses a "market basket" that reflects the spending habits of workers, i.e. "the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers." The mix of goods reflects changes in purchases due to cost/earnings pressures. When steak gets more expensive, the proportion of hamburger to steak is changed in the model's "market basket."

I'm convinced is SHOULD be this way and that people have to wake up to the worst screwing labor has gotten in over 75 years. And it just keeps getting worse.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

11. Glad for ya

My uncle got an socsec raise about $50.00....and the next day his insurance rates went up....




$49.00





Thank's W for that $1.00 raise :grr: