Contemplating Our Communal Income

My social security payment went up by nothing for 2016. It was $955 a month last year, and that's what it will be for the coming year.

As the inmate of a nursing facility, this doesn't make any difference to me personally; by law, since I am a Medicaid patient, the facility gets all but $68 of whatever I get. Sixty-eight dollah per month! That's about 3 pizzas, a couple of chocolate bars, and a bottle of shampoo. By the end of this year, however, I might forego the chocolate.

We old people got no raise (nor did the military) because, thanks to such metrics as gasoline prices, the cost of living index actually went down. But that index doesn't include medical costs. This article explains it better than I can.

I'm seriously concerned about what things will be like here by, say, this coming October, because I don't think prices will stay flat. How will Ladera pay for the paper goods absolutely required by all its incontinent denizens, the laundry soap, bleach, replacement mops, water pitchers and all the other semi-disposable impedimenta of our institutional life. Jesus, what about food?

It makes me feel so much better to know that the income of members of congress also went up 0%. They will continue to receive $14,500 per month, just like last year.