Talking to drivers I keep hearing the same thing: "I can live without a COLA raise so long as I don't have to take a pay cut. I just don't want to lose what I have."
Losing your COLA is losing what you have. It's death by a thousand little cuts.
If banks retain the money which flows into them, as is happening now, that creates a depression. If they release it in the form of loans, they create inflation. [1] They can only do one or the other. Inevitably, the banks must lend and will. And when this occurs, the buying power of your paycheck will decline proportionally. As it does, you will be forced to cut back on your spending, you will have to make sacrifices. Eventually, if you don't have a COLA, you will be forced to make painful concessions.
To keep what you have, you must keep your COLA. Losing it means losing what you have, it means moving backwards.
And anyone suggesting otherwise is a dirty little liar.
[1] For a brief description of how this occurs, please scroll down the blog to "What Everybody Should Understand..." For a more detailed explanation, click the "Money as Debt" link in the audio/video section on the column on the right.
