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To: Broken_Clock who wrote (54527)	10/6/2013 1:58:54 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 85487

Except that the initial amount the retirees receive is adjusted to wage increases which have gone up faster than inflation since Social Security started. Adjust income to SS recipients by starting at what the initial recipients earned, and then adjusting for any of the CPI indexes, or price inflation in food and fuel only, and modern recipients come out ahead.. Food diverges greatly over the short run, but isn't higher in the longer run. It represents a declining portion of not just American spending in general, but also spending by retirees. Gasoline has gone up faster than the inflation rate over the long run, but not a lot faster than the inflation rate (of course and extra percent or two a year compounds on itself, and in the short and medium term it can go up A LOT faster than the general price inflation rate, and the medium run can be a large portion of a person's retirement). But for more retirees gasoline doesn't represent a huge portion of their income. Older retirees are much less likely to drive at all then the general population. The subset that gets large RVs and travels across the country has grown, but that's a voluntary decision, and they chose to spend a lot to buy the RV in the first place. Such a group would be younger (meaning inflation had less time to eat away at any income that didn't change or didn't keep up with costs), healthier (so lower medical costs), and richer than retirees in general. A much better argument for your case would be medical care, which older people need a lot of, and which has gotten a lot more expensive over the years. But - 1 - A lot is paid by Medicare (true its still a real cost, but its not paid from the Social Security Checks). 2 - The cost increase is to a large extent not really inflation, because people are getting more and better care for the same amount of money.