ickenittle post.com: The Great Scrooging of Granny

The wolf that ate Grandma's CD

There are approximately 40 million senior citizens living in 25 million households according to the census bureau, more than 12 million live on less than $30,000 a year-which might not seem so bad until you look a little closer and realise that household income is not the same as individual income.

The truth is these seniors need to live with family members whose joint income equals $30,000 dollars and half of the workers in these households have less than $2000 in retirement savings of any kind.

58% of those between 60-84 will at some point fail to have enough money to get through times of unexpected expenses-or declining income and 55% between the ages of 60-64 are postponing retirement all together. Looks like being a Walmart greeter has become an enviable job.

Before the banks became CRIMINAL CARTEL GAMBLING CASINOS- they used to pay interest on savings accounts and CDs'. Many of today's seniors thought that they would be able to grow their money over the years and use the interest to supplement their Social Security. It was the only way for a lot of seniors to provide for themselves in the future.

That was then this is now.

During 1990-2007 seniors could get a 5% return on CDs' to make ends meet to cover expenses Social Security alone couldn't completely cover. Today the average rate of a six month CD is is a pitiful .30%.

What happened to your interest?

You can thank Ben Bernanke chairman of the Federal Reserve for this poverty increasing rate. He lowered the rate to 0% for you-all the while paying interest on deposits at the Federal Reserve. The effect has been to transfer hundreds of billions to the Wall Street banks from the pockets of senior citizens.

To add insult to injury former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and the U.S. Government have systematically screwed seniors and people with disabilities on Social Security by purposely under estimating the cost of living index-to keep any raises in Social Security as low as possible.The result has been that the cost of living adjustments to Social Security has seriously lagged behind real inflation.

The average Social Security check is $1,074 a month far less than it should be by now.While seniors continue to struggle-Wall Street Bankers are handed billions in free money by Ben Bernanke.

Since 2000 Social Security Benefits have increased less than 2.5% a year while the real cost of living has increased 4 times what the government claims and prices have gone up 8% a year. Because the government doesn't add the cost of inflation to the cost of living increase it remains low screwing Grandma even more.

The Governments view on inflation is when the dollar falls and prices rise simultaneously. One without the other means (to them) there is no inflation. But as we all know-the dollar is flat-but prices have risen-this is our inflation.

Our inflation 101

HUSTLE AND SCREW is the name of the game.

Since 2000 the cost of everyday goods have increased;

unleaded gas-up-24%
heating oil-up-28%

corn-up-50%

wheat-up-48%

Coffee-up-56%

sugar-up-27%

ground beef-up-49%

cotton-up-101%

white bread-up-50%

The way the government decides if Social Security gets an increase is through the CPI or consumer price index which takes the costs of consumer goods for three months and compares them to the previous year.

That would be fine if they took those figures at face value-but for Social Security they add these costs up minus our cost of food and fuel and minus our inflation. They don't count how much services cost like health insurance-medicare premiums-prescriptions-home insurance-car insurance or any other cost that has sky rocketed since 2000. These costs which are unavoidable aren't added to the mix.

Since 2000

What will a twenty buy today ?

Property tax-up-77%

natural gas-up-63%

electricity-up-50%
Medicare premium-up-143%

The average weekly wage in America in terms of buying power is where it was in the early 1970's.

There used to be a time when the working folks could relay on Grandma or Grandpa for loans to help them make ends meet. That day is long gone-as older and younger people forced to live together are struggling to just survive. While the vultures on Wall Street are buying more investment homes.

Lump of coal for Christmas

H.R.3557 Social Security emergency cost of living increase.

This bill would have given seniors an emergency one time payment of $250 to help cover the fact Social Security received no raise for 2010. Republicans denounced it as yet another give away-

Yet these angels in Congress blessed themselves with another pay raise to the tune of $4,700 - $5,300 each. The House and Congress get an automatic raise each year that they either accept or reject. Apparently they feel the need to cut back only applies to Grandma and the rest of America.

With the increase in medicare part B to new Medicare recipients at a cost of $110.50 a month directly deducted from their checks-this will be the first time in the history of Social Security where an increase is not off set by a raise.

Many who are now eligible are saying no thanks to Medicare. Choosing instead to gamble out of necessity to go with out health care instead sticking with part A-Hospitalization-which does not require a premium.

In 2009 there were 6 million people using food stamps-that number has ballooned to a record breaking 43 million today -with more than 521,000 people added from November to December alone-many elderly or unemployed.

Looks like there won't be a puppy in Granny's stocking this year-she like so many across America will get an EBT card instead.