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发帖数: 26222 | 1 Williams estimates that current Social Security payments are roughly half of
what they should be if the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the
Consumer Price Index honestly.
Many of the CPI manipulations were masterminded by Alan Greenspan, chairman
of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve from 1987 under President
Reagan to 2006 under President George W. Bush.
Williams points out that one of Greenspan's manipulations of the CPI
involved the consideration that when steak got too expensive, the consumer
would substitute hamburger for the steak. So, Greenspan argued, the
inflation measure should reflect the costs of buying hamburger, not steak.
"Of course, replacing hamburger for steak in the calculations would reduce
the inflation rate," Williams commented, "but it represented the rate of
inflation in terms of maintaining a declining standard of living. Cost of
living was being replaced by the cost of survival."
"The old system told you how much you had to increase your income in order
to keep buying steak," Williams noted. "The new system promised you
hamburger, and then dog food, perhaps, after that."
Williams properly concluded that Greenspan's arguments violated the "intent
and common usage of the inflation index." |
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