Opinion

Story on seniors making less today?

Posted December 12, 2015 12:00 am

I noticed that the Wednesday, Dec. 9, top story concerned the fact that teachers' pension income is more after retirement.

In the absence of any clarity in the article, I have to assume that these figures that were compared were not adjusted for inflation? Did Jake Griffin "the suburban tax watchdog," compare the old salaries to the new pension income in today's dollars? The article stated that, on average, pensioners have received that money for 19 years.

In order to draw any proper conclusions, we should take a closer look at inflation adjusted dollars. I don't disagree that we may reach the same conclusion about state pensions. We may. But we also may realize that another page one worthy story are all those seniors who make far less than they did in their younger years.

And more to the point: How many are there now in Illinois who are not able to meet basic needs through no fault of their own. But that is off the mark a bit. I should stick with the issue at hand: If our media is going to watch how our taxes are spent, as it should, it should do so intelligently, and with just a titch more economic literacy.

Teresa Britton

Elgin

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