enthalpy

Friday, October 16, 2009


Guess who else didn't get a raise this year? A lot of people that punch the clock at work every day. They're on a "fixed-income," too, and their companies, some listed in the Dow-Jones Industrial Average, didn't give them COLA, either. So I can feel bad for grandma losing her raise this year, but what about everyone else?
If her check were bigger, 76-year-old Agnes Conti might be able to spring for a better cut of meat for her pot roast. She could afford to send her nine grandchildren more than $20 for their birthdays and Christmas. She'd be able to buy some nice new clothes, like she sees on QVC, not what she settles for at Walmart.

If only. The government has said the Social Security checks Conti and tens of millions of other seniors rely on as their primary source of income will not increase next year as consumer prices have fallen overall. And while the retired hospital clerk will get by, she'll be watching her spending even closer, knowing she can't expect the annual raise she's been accustomed to.
So what to do? If people working for 30 years at a company that's not going to give them a raise during these tough economic times™, what hope do people living off the dole?



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