Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
The Social Security program was instituted to help elderly Americans thrive during their retirement years. Unfortunately, millions upon millions of retired Americans are finding that their monthly Social Security payments are simply not enough as the cost of living spirals out of control.
One recent survey found that a whopping 85 percent of U.S. adults now consider inflation to be one of the most important political issues that we are facing, and seniors are being hit particularly hard. In fact, a different survey that was just conducted by the Motley Fool discovered that 44 percent of retired Americans are thinking of going back to work because they need more money to survive…
A growing number of retired Americans are considering returning to work as they continue to battle chronic inflation, according to a new survey published by the Motley Fool.
About 44% of respondents said they are thinking about looking for work because their Social Security benefits have not adequately kept pace with high inflation.
Needless to say, trying to go back to work in your seventies, eighties or nineties is not an easy thing to do.
But if you have to choose between going back to work or not eating three meals a day, I think that the choice is easy.
Today, the average Social Security payment is less than half of what the average retired American spends each month…
The average monthly Social Security payment in 2024 is $1,907, according to the Social Security Administration. But that is just a fraction of the $4,818 that Americans age 65 and older reported spending in 2022.
Of course the current economic environment has been very difficult for all of us.
If you can believe it, compared to three years ago the typical household in this country is spending an extra $1,069 per month just to maintain the same standard of living…
The typical U.S. household needed to pay $227 more a month in March to purchase the same goods and services it did one year ago because of still-high inflation. Americans are paying on average $784 more each month compared with the same time two years ago and $1,069 more compared with three years ago.
Sadly, the cost of living is only going to get worse because our leaders just can’t help themselves.
At this point, our politicians in Washington have borrowed so much money that we are spending more than a trillion dollars a year just in interest on the national debt.
In fact, we now spend more on interest on the national debt than we do on national defense.
But instead of slowing down, our politicians just continue to borrow and spend trillions upon trillions of dollars.
So inflation is not going away any time soon.
Meanwhile, the number of home foreclosures was up once again last month…
Home foreclosures rose again in May as Americans continue to grapple with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
That is according to a new report published by real estate data provider ATTOM, which found that there were 32,621 properties in May with foreclosure filings, which includes default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.
That certainly isn’t a good sign.
Needless to say, there have been lots and lots of troubling signs for the economy lately…
In addition to the conflicting rise in unemployment, other signs of deterioration include stagnant retail sales, a slowing of consumer spending, weak industrial production and manufacturing orders, increasing consumer debt, depressed new housing starts, falling annual earnings of full-time employees, and rising commodity prices.
To many of those at the bottom of the economic food chain, it feels like the economy has already collapsed.
Today, 20 percent of the entire population of California is living in poverty, and massive homeless encampments have sprouted all over the state.
Unfortunately, many more Americans will soon be joining the ranks of the poor because the economy is rapidly moving in the wrong direction.
The outlook is so bleak that even Walmart is closing down stores…
Walmart has decided to close three more stores across the US, bringing this year’s total number of failed locations to 11.
The retail giant said these three stores – located in Georgia and Colorado – underperformed financially.
And we just learned that more Pizza Hut locations are being permanently shuttered…
Pizza Hut shuttered 15 locations in Indiana on Friday while more than 120 additional locations are in danger of closing, according to a report from The Times of Northwest Indiana.
The latest closures come after a long-running dispute between the chain and a franchisee. EYM Group, which owns and operates 142 Pizza Hut locations in Illinois, Indiana, Georgia, South Carolina and Wisconsin, was accused of defaulting on millions of dollars in payments owed to Pizza Hut by a June deadline.
A new economic crisis has already begun, but it is going to get so much worse during the months and years that are ahead of us.
As we approach the end of this calendar year, we will want to keep a very close eye on the global financial system.
There have been a number of ominous signs lately that should definitely alarm all of us. Most notably, the fifth largest bank in Japan just announced that it will be selling off approximately 63 billion dollars in government bonds…
But if that was the first, and still distant, sign that something was very wrong at one of Japan’s biggest banks (Norinchukin is Japan’s 5th largest bank with $840 billion in assets) today the proverbial canary stepped on a neutron bomb inside the Japanese coalmine, because according to Nikkei, Norinchukin Bank “will sell more than 10 trillion yen ($63 billion) of its holdings of U.S. and European government bonds during the year ending March 2025 as it aims to stem its losses from bets on low-yield foreign bonds, a main cause of its deteriorating balance sheet, and lower the risks associated with holding foreign government bonds.”
See, what’s happened in Japan is not that different from what is happening in the US, where as the FDIC keeps reminding us quarter after quarter, US banks are still sitting on over half a trillion dollars in unrealized losses, as a result of the huge jump in interest rates which has blown up the banks’ long-duration fixed income holdings, sending them trading far below par and forcing banks (and the Fed, see BTFP) to come up with creative ways of shoving these massive losses under the rug.
Major banks all over the world are sitting on gigantic mountains of unrealized losses.
If things start going wrong, it won’t take much to induce panic.
And once panic starts, it won’t take much to spark a financial avalanche.
We are in far more trouble than most people realize, and the dark clouds on the horizon are getting closer with each passing day.
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It really doesn’t help any that the Federal Government misreports the actual rate of inflation deliberately in order to reduce the payments to retirees and vets. Rat bastards.
Imagine how much worse it will be when/if they allow all these f’ing illegals to bring in their extended families and put them all on welfare and medicaid and in some cases social security and Medicare. Hospitals-finished. Public education-finished. Personal safety-in peril.
ALL OF the Dollar amounts we have been told the illegals are costing states and municipalities DO NOT include Medicaid payments. Not only do some of our whacko states brag about free medical for illegals, but even say they will pay for foreign freakazoids to come in and get free sex change operations like the Satan spawn Newsom in California.
If Trump is not elected and these millions of freeloading communist pieces of shit are not run out at the point of a bayonet I am convinced this country will be a hellscape beyond our most horrible fantasies.
It’s amazing how politicians keep talking about cuts to “save” SS while simultaneously allowing illegals to collect. Some fuzzy math going on here…..
Imagine how much better off everyone would be without Iraq and Afghanistan etc. That’s where it all went.
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Medicare is already eating up any SS increases.
When your currency is worthless you can give all of it away you want to, to whomever you want to. It makes no difference.
We’ve become completely unmoored from reality based economies.
You ask me? They lost control of it all somewhere between Clinton and Bush Jr. and never got a handle on it again. We’re just waiting for the wheels to fly off at this point.
And what do we do after we rode the horse into the ground? BBQ !
That’s right. They’re going to displace us, kill us and then EAT US.
You’re reading that right.
Not only in the US. Across the border in Canada, same type of thing. My son a paramedic with our military broke his spine while on an exercise.( Full liability accepted by the military) Prior was a triathlete- very fit indeed. Now permanently disabled.
Three spinal surgeries (7+ hours) later ending with a medical discharge. Still in major pain. He was edgeable for education support – but the military insurance supplier sent the forms to the discharge unit who ‘mislaid’ them so he missed the deadline. The insurance company literally said tough luck – nothing to do with us.
Still waiting for his small pension so as to return to college – 8 months later.
The Veterans Association have a couldn’t care less attitude. Truly bad SOB’s.
FYI. A navy friend who retired with an injury and was retrained as a civilian support person told me that he and a colleague discovered that specific civilian supplier. Companies were paid a bonus for paying out as little as possible to our injured vets.
No words to describe this.
Synder dances around the problem in the USA, and talks about the Symptoms dilemma in the West, but he refuses to name the (((controllers))) of the FEDGOV and the FEDRESERVE.
I suppose that’s why he’s still around to say his piece…. he’s waiting and watching to see who can put it all together….
Can you name the controllers???
Is so, you are 90% of the way to the solution….
Look no further than the CFR, BIS and City of London with the Trilateral idiots behind the curtain with Rockefeller et al. https://www.eugyppius.com/p/everything-you-never-wanted-to-know?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=268621&post_id=135858329&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email
It’s always them, Yogi.
America, soon to revert back to the days of the wild wild west on steroids, is going to be a law of the jungle sort of place. Wait until it all comes crumbling down. Not even WWIII will be able to save this God forsaken Ponzi scheme we call an economy. It’s not a mater of if, but when.
End the Federal Reserve. Return the Currency Act of 1792 with tweaks. Cut the federal government by about 90%. Eliminate all federal law enforcement except US Marshals. Eliminate the standing army to 50,000 total including special forces and training cadre while increasing state national guard. Maintain a strong Navy. Eliminate income tax relying on tariffs and excise taxes as originally envisioned. Make states operate all their own welfare etc. under 10th amendment. Set a reasonable date after which all illegal aliens will be shot or forcibly repatriated and all assets seized. MAKE OUR OWN STUFF.
If we could do that we might have a chance.
How do you expect them to hold on to power with thoughts like that? shame on you!(s)
Just a little hopium is not a bad thing, in moderation.
We hope our preparations will be unnecessary. We hope they will repent. We hope and pray.
Add.
Term limits.
Politicians have same health ins. as their voters out of their own pocket.
Politicians have same avg. wage as voters.
No usury/interest.
All gov workers have liability ins. out of their own pocket, especially cops and judges and lawyers and can be sued.
Deport dual citizens.
Deport illegals.
Defend the borders.
For a start.
Retirees and spicks battling for jobs …priceless.
2 years ago all the middle/upper class voters round here thought illegals were just fine. They loved being able to hire them for a fraction of what they would have to pay Americans, loved the low cost landscaping and the cheap household help. Now that they are being outnumbered suddenly they don’t like it. Now they feel afraid of the crime and are seeing their taxes go through the roof to finance this shit they’re in a snit about it. KARMA.
A Super Walmart closed last year in Wadesboro, NC. There’s only 1 grocery store (IGA) in the whole county of 25,000. Sure, there are 5-6 Dollar Generals but the nearest grocery store is 25 minutes west in Monroe.
The reason it closed? “Shrinkage”.
62% black
Just wait till the day comes when one will have to show that they have the funds to even enter a store, social credits and all.
But there will be a special line for SNAP card holders.
Off topic but these people in Kenya have more balls than the boiling frogs here.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/kenya-protesters-storm-parliament-police-fire-live-rounds-after-lawmakers-unleash-eco
You will be escorted by someone or order your food for curbside delivery. Its already happening.
Kenya’s populace pretty well armed? I’m sure they have plenty of Kalashnikovs at least. Then the machetes good lord.
In other words NIGGERS gonna NIG !
What inflation hasn’t stolen…my HOA has, it’s time to make some changes.
HOA? HA HA HA!
Little Commie outposts of the hinterlands. Utopia is always just out of reach for the plebs. They just can’t help themselves.
Get out of debt before you retire. Downsize, Buy a piece of dirt and build a shack. start a garden and get some critters to eat. stop whining. I had a coworker who was 72 and in debt for 45000 dollars, she bought a new double wide when she was 65. she had a heart attack and went back to work and died. I talked to her about retiring and she figured she would work until she died, and she did.
We did the above, and retired at 55, wife at 52. We are doing fine on half the income mentioned above, and I will double my income when I get SS in 1.5 years t 67, and no were not in a double wide. We are in a real house with real taxes.
You worked your whole life to live in a shack while illegals live in 5 star hotels and luxury apartments without having to do anything for it. Why do you accept such a low standard of living? Is this the American dream now? To retire to a shack?
A rural shack or cabin or little house or trailer or double wide whatever you got. On a nice peaceful self sustaining piece of land yes much preferable to a luxury apartment. Surrounded by flaky puffs no thanks. Ted K had a nice shack.
WTF is a self sustaining piece of land?
It’s another a way to say ‘f*ck you’, Anonymous
Boomers loved shopping at Walmart so much in their working lives that they get to retire and die there! Well played!
At least we won’t die standing in line at Disney World, you gay renter.
I’ve got advanced Boomer fatigue from these little gutless fuck-stain keyboard mobsters like puff cloud.
They’re the ones who won’t look you in the eye when you pass them on the street, but they ALWAYS look back after you’ve passed.
Gutless faggots indeed.
The upsi
The upside is you can get waited on by a hard working caring individual that doesn’t have a bone in their nose or prison face tattoos.
Remember what Matt Bracken says. When TSHTF, when you are scanning the neighborhood through your scope, absolutely shoot without second thought every single one with face tattoos.
They’re going to be obvious anyways since the only white ones will be running with non-whites.
That’s actually pretty sound advice…even if it is based on ideology. More than likely, the fag that ends up killing you will probably be wearing one or more.
Thin the herd!
The only down side IS the target rich environment.
Shoot and scoot works BEST on high value targets. Once your position is made, you’re looking at an entirely different aspect of warfare…spray and pray. SERE.
The downside is you’re at Hooters and your 70 year old server has man boobs.
Who eats at Hooters? Thought they went out of business twenty years ago.
Who EVER ate at Hooters? It’s a beer and titty franchise FFS.
Life in retirement can be relatively easy IF you paid your house off and have very little debt. Also, have some PM’s to ward off hyper increases in property tax and insurance costs. The big key is being in a debt free home.
Gold is your hedge against hyperinflation.
Gee, millions of retirees relying on a giant Ponzi scheme for their retirements. What could possibly go wrong. Millions of retirees taking out double and trip,e what they ever put in, and currently the money they receive is coming out of the paychecks of the younger generation. That is all good, right? Anyone who bought into this system was wilfully blind, stupid, or both.
No one should be retired and living off the young. That is obscene and evil.
BS, I made an excel spreadsheet from my SS statement, I will never get the money back I put in, my father died after 3 years of collecting, he did not get 10% of the money he put in. Its all the people collecting between the ages of 1month old to 61 years old who is draining the SS fund, yes ther are millions of parents collecting SS for there babies
full of shit
The worst thing is that they tax you on that “income”, AGAIN. WTF?
Actually, every payment I am grateful. Started collecting my stolen funds at 62, bird in the hand as they say.
OK, maybe if I live long enough I will get all of the SS money that was STOLEN from me back, in nominal dollars, but NOT in purchasing power! For every dollar that was taken from me (under threat of imprisonment) when I started working full time in 1979 I need $4.20 back as of last year (gee, I wonder if we’ve had more inflation since then? Hmmm…) to get the same purchasing power! See: minneapolisfed.org for what I am sure is an understated (and one year behind) inflation calculator. And on and on, through the last 45 years of unrelenting inflation. Oh, and the same for my employer(s) who had to pay in the matching amount – or go to prison.
And getting adjusted-for-inflation dollars back would just get me to parity, not accounting for the fact that time is money! Had I been able to retain that money, and my employers been able to pay me that money in wages, in that 45 years I would have at least had the opportunity to make some money off of it, even if only in a simple passbook savings account. Or, at least Uncle Sam could have been investing that money for me. But no…
So spare me the crap about “taking out more than I put in” . The Fed Reserve system and SS was DESIGNED to make sure you wouldn’t get it all, let alone more.
North of 45? Eat muh dust, bitch! lol! 45 ain’t even in my rearview anymore!
I don’t know what is a scam and what isn’t. I can remember watching 60 minutes in the 70s and there was outcry that the program was going to run out of money “any day” and then more money would suddenly be appropriated for it. Is SS the same thing as all the earth crisis since the 70s?
if congress can shit money for illegals and to blow up Ukraine
then just reach into their retirement funds and put the 2 trillion stolen from social security
how many billions went for 2 car charge stations that don’t work …
o I know go fuck my self
Awful long title for a book.
the social security system was not created to help people in their old age. it was created to turn people into docile, snivelling, capitives grovelling at the master’s feet for a few crumbs. the more people are dependent on a gubmint check (even if it’s their own money stolen from them), the less theyll ever be willing to rock the boat.
Government is always the problem.
And the ‘solution’.
Convenient, ain’t it?
That’s funny, because no one around here will hire me. Pushing 70, disabled but still able to work part time. For all the carping about ‘people don’t want to work’ employers sure are picky.
Adam and Eve never drew a paycheck in their lives. Everything seems to have worked out for them. Their descendants are alive and mostly well…for the moment.