Hi all,
Been lurking a long time and I feel that there's something I can add to the social security discussion.
There's a ton of diaries on here about c-CPI and an entire movement dedicated to raising attention about it but I think that the arguments being made are emotional rather than intellectual.
The change to social security being discussed is how the cost of living increase is calculated. I.e. how much prices are inflating each year. Now the point of contention with chained CPI is that it lowers this COLA and thus constitutes a cut to your benefits. While this might be correct I don't believe it's the argument we should be having. The issue is being framed wrong.
Pretend for a minute you are an employee of a company who provides you with an expense budget of 50$ a year to buy office supplies. Each year that budget increases by 5$ but office supplies only increase in price by 4$. So every year you are gaining a dollar. The company eventually falls on hard times and needs to cut back. They look at the cost of office supplies and say we are reducing the increase to 4$ per year as we have been over compensating you. Is this a cut? And if so is the company wrong to do it? I would say not. Now take this thought experiment and apply it social security and the COLA. If the government is truly over compensating for inflation are they wrong to correct this?
Now I bring you to my main point which is the argument should not be that chained CPI is a cut but whether or not it is in line with inflation for people on social security. I would say that c-CPI is not an accurate measure of inflation and thus while not necessarily being a cut it is the wrong measure to use. We should dispute less that chained CPI is cut and more about what is the proper way to account for the COLA used for social security. If the argument is frame in this manner I think all progressives can agree and unite behind pushing through a proper COLA for social security and force politicians to find better ways to strengthen social security.
As this is my first diary any feedback is greatly appreciated and I hope I've provided some food for thought.