People on Social Security just can’t get a break. They work under a mandated set of assumptions and guidelines for multiple decades and when it comes time to receive the benefits, they get shortchanged. Some people don’t realize that the employers were required to match the employee contributions. At the current rate, a total of 15.3% goes to the U.S. Treasury for each dollar the average person earns.
From the headlines of John Williams’ www.shadowstats.com :
2015 Social Security COLA (cost-of-living-adjustment) at 1.7%
Would Have Been 9.4% without Existing Gimmicks for Understating Inflation
The big boys playing with the numbers have no idea what it takes for the average retiree to make ends meet. They are rather insulated from the harshness of inflationary food prices at the local grocery store. $7 for a block of cheese? I requested an armed guard to accompany me and my cheese to my car.
The average price for a pound of ground beef climbed to another record high–$4.096 per pound–in the United States in September, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
In August, according to BLS, the average price for a pound of all types of ground beef topped $4 for the first time–hitting $4.013. In September, the average price jumped .083 cents, an increase of 2.1 percent in one month.
A year ago, in September 2013, the average price for a pound of ground beef was $3.502 per pound. Since then, it has climbed 59.4 cents–or about 17 percent in one year.
A picture was worth 1.7% but it should have been worth 9.4%:
