If you doubt that pointy-headed college professors do exist, shielded by ivy covered tenure and coddled in academic robes of illusion, stop and consider the natterings of one Richard E. Thaler whom the New York Times says is,
“. . . a professor of economics and behavioral science at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. He is also an academic adviser to the Allianz Global Investors Center for Behavioral Finance, a part of Allianz, which sells financial products including annuities.”
Pretty impressive credentials. But they start fraying at the edges when you consider them in the harsh light of truth – as compared with the fancies of the piece he published in today’s paper. You can read his entire piece here but keep your salt shaker handy and be ready to sprinkle a grain or two.
He says,
” . . . the one source of annuities that is fully inflation protected, is fairly priced, and, because it is run by the government, is reasonably safe: Social Security benefits. “
Obviously, no elderly SS recipient has climbed up that ivory tower (the knees are the second things that go) to inform him of the Social Security COLA fraud that has stopped cost of living adjustments since 2008 and is quite capable of putting an end to future adjustments for inflation in the cost of the most fundamental goods and service. There is not a single data point of essential goods and services that has not taken huge jumps in the past three years.
Wheat and Corn, the two essential basic foods that go into everything else and are also the basic feed for livestock, have soared. Fuel is up. Electricity is up. Sales tax rates are up. Local bus fares are up.Medicare deductions from your SS benefit have gone up.
Yet, Social Security has no Cost of Living Adjustment is justified because only prices have gone up, not costs.
Whhhaaa? repeat that, please.
Only prices have gone up, not costs.
See the previous PITS article for an explanation of the COLA fraud.
The professor also seems to have those tower windows closed against the cries of outrage that are now rising across the land as our government straps Social Security to the table and sharpens its surgical instruments to make cuts . . . and without anesthesia.
Our Pollyanna of The Classroom warbles soothingly as the buzz saw whines up to speed in the back ground . . .
“I believe that as long as the elderly continue to vote in large numbers, no Congress will renege on promised payouts for those already eligible to receive benefits.”
Clearly he is not aware that this canard is a fully fledged Fait Accompli. That bird has flown. It has fallen out of the cuckoo’s nest. It is an ex-parrot.
I wonder if perhaps he was so nose-down in his keyboard, pushing to meet his NYT deadline, that he may have missed the widely reported announcements in only the past week that reductions in Social Security benefits are negotiable as part of the manufactured debt crisis?
The same Congress that approved the “Chained Consumer” rules that put an end to COLA also voted themselves a 3% raise to cover the cost of living.