No Cost of Living Increase for SS Recipients ... Cry Me a River ...

As those of you know, I am in an ongoing battle against Social Security. It's a social program handout that should be either (a) adjusted with the actuary rates or (b) abolished altogether. (Feel free to read Speedy Gonzales, Social Security, Medicare and Welfare

With the part B medicare cost being equal to the marginal increase in benefits, there will be no cost of living adjustment (COLA) increase for those on the dole ... I mean on Social Security. However, I am here to arm you with facts to counteract the impending onslaught of whining from those with their hands out.

It's a simple math equation. Present it to the whiners and let them find the answer.

About 45 million people -- one in seven in the country -- receive both Medicare and Social Security. (Medicare Rise Could Mean No Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment)

For every ONE person on Medicare and SS there are only SIX people to pay for it.  In January 2011, the average Social Security payout for a retiree was $1,177/month (Average Monthly Social Security Benefit for a Retired Worker).  That would work out to a cost of $196.17 per month for each person NOT on Social Security.

Unfortunately not all six of those people work.  Some of them are children (27.3% of the U.S. population is under 20 Wikipedia).  Some of them will have jobs, so we'll say that 20% of the six not on the Medicare/SS dole are children.  That leaves us with just 4.8 people to pay for each person on the dole.  But wait!  There's more.

The BLS says unemployment is 8.9%.  However, that number does not include the U6 unemployed (those working a p/t job when they really need f/t or those who have stopped looking because there simply is no work).  The U6 unemployment is 16.7%.   When these numbers are adjusted, the TRUE unemployment rate is 21.1%.  (The Real Unemployment Rate)  Adjusting that 4.8 with the REAL unemployment rate brings it down to 3.79 people persons to pay for each person on Social Security.  That's without considering families like mine where the mother stays home.

Now, the average SS payout of $1,177 per month divided by 3.79 people who pay for it equals a monthly cost of $310.55 per working person.  Now we are a one income family with six children.  We could really use that $310 each month for things like FOOD and CLOTHING for our children.  My weekly food budget varies between $150-$200 a week.  The hand out it literally taking food out my children's mouths.

But it gets better.  That is just Social Security.  What is our family paying for Medicare (while my husband and I go uninsured because we can't afford it and my eldest will become uninsured on his 19th birthday)?  The cost each year for each Medicare recipient is about $11,000 per year.  Of that, the recipient pays about 10% in premiums.  Using the total cost of Medicare in 2009 divided the number of workers in 2009, the cost came to $3,690 per working person (What is the Cost per Citizen for Medicare?).

Of course now there are fewer working persons to spread that cost to, but we'll use the optimistic 2009 figures anyway.  The cost of Medicare for each working person comes to $307.29 a month.

So, how much does ONE person on the Medicare/SS dole cost each of 3.79 working people in this country each month? 

$617.84

And that, folks, is why I, and many others like me, have no health coverage and little compassion for the whiners on the dole who do.  We have to pay for those on the dole AT OUR OWN DETRIMENT so they can have what we can no longer afford.  I'm sure my children are happy to know that if I get bad sick they will finish growing up with no mother so someone who's 83 can get a check every month their medical needs taken care of ... and then complain that it isn't enough and what it costs THEM!

Peace Out,
~*~*~Krystal~*~*~