Real People, Real Hardship

Al Brooks & Bob Henderson

In case there are lingering doubts about the human side of the Oak Ridge pension problem take a look at the following table:

DISTRIBUTION OF REAL RETIREES AND REAL SURVIVING SPOUSES BY YEAR OF RETIREMENT

AND PERCENT ORIGINAL BUYING POWER WITHOUT COLAs

YEAR	RETIREE	SURVIVING SPOUSE	TOTAL	CPI/BLS	% Buying Power
1970 (AND BEFORE)	17	32	49	116.3	19.9
1971	8	20	28	121.3	20.7
1972	3	25	28	125.3	21.4
1973	29	42	71	133.1	22.8
1974	31	50	81	147.7	25.2
1975	25	40	65	161.2	27.6
1976	39	68	107	170.5	29.1
1977	73	77	150	181.5	31.0
1978	66	67	133	195.4	33.4
1979	66	80	146	217.4	37.2
1980	93	88	181	246.8	42.2
1981	176	169	345	272.4	46.6
1982	208	132	340	289.1	49.4
1983	116	90	206	298.4	51.0
1984	314	170	484	311.1	53.2
1985	479	197	676	322.2	55.1
1986	152	89	241	328.4	56.1
1987	179	65	244	340.4	58.2
1988	263	99	362	354.3	60.6
1989	178	87	265	371.3	63.5
1990	384	116	500	391.4	66.9
1991	192	57	249	408.0	69.7
1992	445	89	534	420.3	71.8
1993	314	56	370	432.7	74.0
1994	825	106	931	444.0	75.9
1995	460	60	520	456.5	78.0
1996	308	40	348	469.9	80.3
1997	486	47	533	480.8	82.2
1998	316	38	354	488.3	83.5
1999	392	46	438	499.0	85.3
2000	613	56	669	515.8	88.2
2001	183	27	210	530.4	90.7
2002	208	22	230	538.8	92.1
2003	210	21	231	551.1	94.2
2004	382	26	408	565.8	96.7
2005	189	11	200	585.0	100.0
TOTALS	8422