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Originally Posted by tophcfa
Not sure how those stats are calculated, but does anyone in their right mind actually believe food went up only 2.3% in the last year?
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Remember, this is from September 2023 to September 2024, and it is an increase on what you already consider huge price increases. A lot of the increase happened more than a year ago. This is building on top of that. It is NOT a measure of how much the price of food has goon up since 2020. You got a much larger Cost of Living Adjustment last year because inflation was much higher, and you continue to get that. It’s not a one time thing.
The purpose of the Social Security COLA is not to raise it more than it’s gone up in the last year and give you a raise, but simply to help you keep up.
What’s more, the grocery inflation percentage is based on the average price of many things, some of which didn’t go up at all and some of which you never buy. I know some things I buy pretty often seem to have gone up 25% recently, but lots of things are the same as a year ago.
The Consumer Price Index also factors in prices that have gone DOWN. Gas is down about 15%. A lot of people are so used to watching TV news that tells them that the prices of everything have gone up so much that they don’t realize that this is not necessarily accurate or comprehensive. Here are the actual percentages for this year and last year from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, used for figuring out your COLA:
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This explanation is two years old, but still helpful:
What’s inside the consumer price index? | Pew Research Center
“ The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which is responsible for the CPI, starts by collecting price data for hundreds of discrete goods and services – the so-called “market basket” – from around 8,000 housing units and 23,000 retailers, service providers and online outlets in 75 urban areas around the country. Data on rents is gathered from some 50,000 landlords and tenants.”