Peter Orvetti wrote a post about why older folks don’t really deserve a boost in their Social Security benefits. This was well grounded in economist thinking. Which, of course, is why, in my opinion, it is so far removed from reality.
His point was that since official inflation was very modest this past fiscal year (1.1 percent), and official inflation was actually down last year, and official inflation was up so much the year before that, older Americans are really ahead of the game financially in benefit terms.
Ah, if only the old lived in economist land where these numbers are crunched.
Because here’s the view from where older folks actually live in the real world. They don’t much buy things whose price has declined in the last few years, things such all those electronic gizmos so beloved by the young. They mostly spend their money on food, on medical costs, on housing.
Food prices went up almost 4 percent this past fiscal year. Older people who own their own homes have often seen their property taxes soar in this period as local governments do everything they can to raise revenue. As for medical care, one might like to discuss these costs with an older person. You might find that beyond the official no-inflation environment we have these days, there’s co-pay hikes that you wouldn’t believe, which have drained the strapped budgets of many, many seniors.
Frankly, I’m disgusted by economist blather and very confused that anyone can still take it seriously. Our economist friends have been assuring Americans that the recession ended more than a year ago and few but themselves share this imaginary view. The same is true when it comes to rising standards of living among Social Security dependent older Americans.
It just ain’t true. And if every Ivy league-trained economist from Harvard to Stanford swore on his/her copy of Wealth Of Nations that it was true, it still wouldn’t be true.
Sincerely,
Mike Silverstein
wallstreetpoet.com