The difference is taxes. That’s why people cannot afford to live. Property taxes are paid with post-income tax money. It’s the same with sales taxes, etc.
We won’t ever get perfect government. Does it cheat? Yes. Will it cheat? Yes.
We need a program that eats away at government. Think about what you wrote. If indexing had existed all this time then S.S. would have collapsed long ago. If they cheated the numbers, they’d be keeping revenue from themselves.
Indexing is the key to starving the Beast. Plus, it’s something that everyone can get behind. It’s conservative populism at its best.
You seem to have missed the point. INDEXING of social security PAYOUT has existed for a long time but indexing means little unless the figures are accurate. If you believe the government is using accurate figures to adjust social security for cost of living you have been duped. The only people who are cheated by that fraud are those who are trying to get by on social security. The government has used the money taken in over the years but not paid out to fund other programs. There is no question that the method of computing CPI has been changed to hold down social security payments, that has been an open secret, a matter of record. It is also a matter of record that the “trust fund” has been used to buy treasury bonds which means the only thing in the trust fund is a promise to use general funds to pay back social security.
Indexing is a great idea if you can somehow get some honest people in charge, good luck with that! Actually if we had an honest government we would not have the inflation that we have had and there would be no need for indexing. In short the passage of new legislation is not the cure for anything at this point unless it cancels out about ninety nine percent of existing legislation. The greatest builder on the planet cannot construct a house worth living in on top of a mile high pile of steaming garbage. We have a supreme court which has declared that an absurdly unconstitutional act is actually constitutional because it contains a tax which was called a fee by the people who defended it. This is ridiculous, it basically says that the government can require anyone to do anything by simply imposing a tax but calling it a fee until such time as they need to start calling it a tax to somehow make it constitutional. The supreme court has said that the effort exerted by the founders in trying to create the best possible framework for a constitutional republic was an exercise in wasting time because they inserted a few words which have been interpreted to mean, “Disregard all that goes before and after this phrase and just do as you damned well please.” So long as we have such corruption in government it matters not what you index.