Indexing means nothing so long as the bureaucrats can decide how much of the actual increase in the cost of living that they will acknowledge. Social Security has been indexed for a long time and the official figures are ridiculously understated. If a REAL cpi adjustment had been used the whole system would have crashed long ago. The official figures say that $9.88 now has the purchasing power of $1.00 in 1950. In reality it would be more than double that. In 1950 working men were supporting famiies on sixty dollars a week or less. That won’t even pay the electric bill for an all electric house in many areas now. To be “comfortable” now, not rich at all but comfortable, a person needs to make in one year what a working man of 1950 expected to earn in a LIFETIME.
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.
As a Private, E-1, in 1970, my first monthly pay scale was 89 dollars. Then VOLAR (Volunteer Army) struck about a year later and it jumped up to 389, and even though I had been promoted a few times, we were still making a huge amount more.