Social Security Income (SSI) is a payment the government provides to retired seniors over 65, typically based on what the retired individual earned during the working years of their life.
This benefits package is the central part of America's social safety net. It is a promise to Americans that if they work and contribute to society when they can, America will step up and take care of them in their senior years.
The issue in recent years has become an over-extended Social Security structure that barely has any money to keep up with SSI, and payments that are not increasing even though inflation is running out of control. This is causing a lot of stress to millions of seniors who are wondering if their SSI will even survive now.
Because America has moved so quickly from Black Lives Matter and the 'Summer of Love' to COVID-19 panic to now being obsessed with Ukraine and Russia, all in less than two years, things like the suffering of seniors get pushed aside.
Why would America's mass media speak about over 70% of seniors not being able to live on their SSI when they can talk about a potential global war and get more clicks and viewers? Seniors' problems aren't getting the attention they deserve, nor are their SSI payments increasing along with inflation to help offset their cost of living (COL).
7 Percent and Rising
The idea that inflation in America is only 7% is a slap in the face to every man and woman in the country who's gone grocery shopping or put gas in their vehicle in the past year. That's not even getting into the cost of medical care, which is felt by seniors the most. Medicare is still an insurance system. It does not in any way cover all medications.
Seniors with COPD and other chronic illnesses who need recurring medicines typically must go into their own pockets and spend a portion of that already shrinking SSI check in order to live. That's also not even counting if they're in a private retirement community, the money that costs now.
7% is a government trick used relative to the strength of the US Dollar vs. the GDP and the global economy, etc. It's not actually a real number.
If senior retirement benefits aren't enough to keep up with rising costs now, what's going to happen when the world is truly at war, America has basically no oil, and the debt of the nation is stretched out another few trillion dollars?
Certain demographics will be cared for through specialized privileges in legislation. For instance, senior immigrants are having money thrown at them like a prize has been won.
The American who has worked their entire life and is now struggling to live? These are the forgotten people of the country.
Seniors Do Not Avoid the Struggle
One of the main reasons that seniors aren't spoken about too often is that they're generally out of sight. They're not holding signs and protesting. They're not raging over current conditions on social media. They're too busy trying to stretch pennies out so that they don't end up homeless and suffering in the remaining years they have left.
Mass media does not cover these stories much at all. The struggle for seniors on SSI has been increasing with every new moral panic America has been through since early 2020, and the high cost of living certainly makes this a lot worse.
Government Raises and Senior Lip Service
While America's news media simply told you that Congress was giving money to Ukraine, as is supposedly the duty of America, since Ukraine is suddenly the world's preeminent example of a functioning democracy, there's something else politicians did that many are unaware of.
They gave themselves a 21% raise in a spending bill. Yes, America's noble Congressional class decided to pay itself over $40,000 more per year.
How much of this spending bill was directed at seniors struggling to live? Not a single penny. But they did send out a few old-guard Republican Representatives to pay lip service to seniors.
Senior benefits are dwindling in the face of an economic crisis. If America truly cares about its moral panics, it should start addressing the ones they are causing here at home.
