On Oct 12, 11:59*am, Dan Abel > wrote:
> In article
> >,
>
> *Nancy2 > wrote:
> > On Oct 12, 8:03*am, "James Silverton" >
> > wrote:
> > > There is an evident contradiction here. Why should cut-backs be needed
> > > when Social Security is pegged to the CPI which has hardly changed. Does
> > > the CPI not measure the cost of living and thus a need for increases?
> > Yes, you're right about when the COL on SS income kicks in; however,
> > the CPI may not change overall, but certain items within it do - like
> > medical costs, which rise for no reason whatsoever. *Many expenses
> > like medical expenses are ones that seniors cannot do without. *Also,
> > utilities continue to rise. *OTOH, maybe clothing doesn't, or one's
> > housing cost doesn't (and, in fact, interest rates are down). *The CPI
> > is an overall figure, not one that takes individual increases
> > affecting seniors into account.
>
> Interesting. *What utilities? *I had read that a major reason for the
> indexes (that COLAs are based on) going down was the drop in price for
> heating oil. *I don't use heating oil, and nobody that I know around
> here does, so that was disappointing, but I know that a lot of people
> spend a lot of money on that in cold climates.

In this area, rents are actually down. Three or 4 years ago I could
have gotten 10-20% more for the house we just rented out. Two years
ago we didn't get raises at work at all, which was OK because prices
didn't go up. In fact, more restaurants are offering better discounts
over the past two years. It wouldn't surprise me if we didn't get any
raises this year. If seniors are having problems it probably has more
to do with decreased interest rates on savings than cost of living.
>
> --
> Dan Abel

--Bryan