#Data Source

[xtruss]

This Was The Average Social Security Benefit In 1984, And Here's What It Is Now

— By Katie Brockman | January 15, 2025

Getty Images

Key Points:

🔑 Social Security has been around for decades, but it's changed a lot in that time.

🔑 The average benefit in 1984 was a fraction of the average today, but that doesn't tell the whole story.

🔑 Even with annual raises, benefits are struggling to keep up with inflation.

Social Security is one of the most important social programs for older Americans, with roughly 90% of those age 65 and older collecting benefits, according to 2024 data from the Social Security Administration. But the cost of living has changed significantly over time, and today's benefits look much different than in 1984.

Social Security Benefits Have Been Steadily Increasing

The Social Security Administration introduced cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) in 1975 to help benefits maintain their buying power amid rising inflation. As a result, beneficiaries receive a small raise most years when the COLA takes effect.

In 1984, the average benefit was just $460.57 per month. It's steadily gone up over time, with today's retirees earning an average payment of $1,925.46 per month, as of November 2024.

Data Source: Social Security Administration.

However, while benefits are increasing over time, they're not necessarily worth more than they were decades ago. In fact, since 2010, Social Security has lost around 20% of its buying power, according to a 2024 report from nonprofit group The Senior Citizens League.

Even with annual COLAs, Social Security is struggling to keep pace with rising costs. If this trend continues, retirees may not be able to rely on their benefits as much in the future as they do now.

There may not be much you can do about Social Security's loss of buying power, but there's a good chance benefits won't go as far as they used to. If possible, leaning more heavily on other sources of income can reduce your dependence on Social Security and better protect your retirement.

Social Security Announces Big Changes For Retirees, Disability Benefits And VA Recipients In March 2025! In Addition To The Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA), The SSA Has Implemented Other Important Modifications

This Is Why Social Security Payments To Retirees And Disability Beneficiaries Have Been Suspended

US Government Confirms That The IRS Will Be Sending Out Tax Refunds Between March 10th And 16th

— Francisco Garrido | March 10, 2025

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has confirmed significant adjustments impacting retirees, disability beneficiaries, and veterans in March 2025. These changes aim to mitigate the effects of inflation and ensure financial stability for more than 70 million Americans who rely on these payments.

One of the most important updates is the Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA), which affects the amount of monthly checks. This modification responds to economic trends and rising costs of goods and services, ensuring that beneficiaries maintain their purchasing power. The SSA has scheduled the first payment of the month for March 12, 2025, meaning millions of recipients will receive their adjusted checks on that date.

How Does COLA Impact March Payments?

The Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) is one of the most anticipated updates each year, as it directly affects the amount Social Security beneficiaries receive. For 2025, the increase is 2.5%, based on the previous year’s economic data. This adjustment helps counter inflation and ensures that recipients can cover their essential needs without losing financial stability.

Key 🔑 Points About The 2025 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA):

The adjustment is calculated based on 2024’s economic performance.

The first payment of March will be issued on March 12, 2025.

It benefits retirees, disabled individuals, and veterans receiving Social Security payments.

The increase applies automatically, requiring no additional action from beneficiaries.

Other Social Security Changes in 2025

In Addition To Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA), The Social Security Administration (SSA) Has Implemented Other Important Modifications:

Increase in Taxable Earnings Cap: Workers contributing to Social Security will see an increase in the amount of earnings subject to taxation. For 2025, the limit is $176,100, expanding the range of contributions and strengthening the Social Security system.

Changes in Full Retirement Age: Individuals born in certain years will experience an adjustment in their full retirement age. The current range of 66–67 years is gradually increasing to 68 or 70 years, depending on the year of birth. This measure aims to ensure the long-term sustainability of the program.

Higher Maximum Benefits: Retirees reaching full retirement age in 2025 will be eligible for an increased maximum benefit. The new monthly limit is expected to exceed $3,800, ensuring higher payouts for those who delay claiming Social Security.

Who Benefits From These Changes?

The Updates In March 2025 Primarily Impact Two Major Groups:

Retirees: Those who have ended their professional careers and depend on Social Security will see an increase in their payments due to COLA.

People with Disabilities: Beneficiaries with limited resources will receive increased financial support to cover their essential needs.

Survivors and Dependents: Family members who qualify for Social Security benefits due to a deceased or disabled worker may also experience payment adjustments.

The SSA continues working to maintain system stability and adapt to economic changes. It is essential for beneficiaries to stay informed about these modifications and plan their finances accordingly. The March 12, 2025, payment marks the first of the month and continues the adjustments applied since January.

[carolxia]

Data sources

(1) Celebrity endorsement income 250 data to analyze the distribution of celebrity endorsement fees in the luxury industry. (2) Handmade luxury goods videos 30 videos showing the real labor process of craftsmen making luxury goods. (3) Luxury advertisement videos 30 advertisements, analyzing how brands construct cultural values through narrative and visual language. (4) Fast Fashion Factory Videos 30 videos documenting the reality of assembly line production.

[snakconsultancyservices]

Power BI and DAX Studio, exploring how this partnership enhances the data modeling and analysis experience- SCS

[elsa16744]

Data Growth - How to Determine the Real Purpose of Data

Perception of trust and accountability help realize the value of data. However, data management and insight exploration must ensure that all the corporate data processing tasks align with what the leadership and stakeholders envision. Otherwise, companies will spend resources on irrelevant intelligence development. Thankfully, managers can discover reliable knowledge resources discussing the principles of handling data growth while maintaining business model relevance and a sense of purpose. This article elaborates on the necessary considerations to keep in mind.

[buffydataviz]

Viewership Ratings for BTVS

Thanks to a recent Sunnydale Herald post, I learned of a post on BTVS Ratings by reddit user Normal-Appearance982. Using Nielsen Media Research the ratings cover all seven seasons. The numbers switch from household rating/share to an ages 18-49 ratings starting in S4. While there are average ratings for each season, there are also detailed numbers for each episode on their rating's website. The viewership is for the live showings of the episodes, it doesn't cover re-runs or streaming.

My only commentary is that their recap implies the show ended with S7 because of low ratings. My understanding is that the show was known to be ending early in the season, partially because SMG (understandably) did not want to continue playing Buffy.

I don't care about ratings data but wanted to pass this along as a data source. And if you are into it, there's some good OP comments and discussion on the reddit post.

[opensuse-official]

I think it is very cool how tech companies, schools, employers, and universities make it actively difficult to distance yourself from Google, Microsoft, and Apple.

Yes most Linux distros are very stable, way more secure, privacy friendly, and way more customizable. But every institution is built to make technological independence as difficult as possible.

Yelling on the internet that everyone should switch to Linux and FOSS really ignores how much of the technological world is designed to not let that happen.

[scarycranegame]

EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP AND READ THIS.

THE CURRENT VOTE COUNT IS NOT THE FINAL RESULT.

IT WILL TAKE SEVERAL DAYS TO COUNT ALL OF THE VOTES AND DETERMINE WHO WINS THE ELECTION (POSSIBLY MORE IF A RECOUNT IS NECESSARY).

IT IS VERY LIKELY THAT THE FINAL RESULTS WILL NOT LOOK LIKE THE INITIAL RESULTS.

STOP DOOMPOSTING AND LEARN HOW THIS SHIT WORKS.

[warpfactor9]

i feel like we as a community don't dwell on the fact that data drinks lube often enough. does he take it like a shooter for maximum efficiency? does he mix it into a silly cocktail with a little umbrella and sip it with a straw to be social? i think about it constantly

[juanabaloo]

OK, so standard caveats. they are still counting and curing and recounting votes in some places. there's a push for a recount. there's legit reports of possible widespread cheating.

and if all of that sounds too crazy for you, at least control of the House is still being decided! (check, if your vote wasn't counted you can take steps to fix it)

AND these are exit polls in 10 key states, so of course this is not exactly the same as the actual election result demographics, even in those 10 key states. I don't like linking to NBC but this was the easiest version of the exit poll results I could find. it seems like the name is Edison Research, there's more at the link, you can break it down by each of the 10 states.

the good news, based on these exit polls:

if voters were only any of the following groups, Harris would have won (aka gotten over 50% of the vote):

only non white people (64%)

only people under 45 (51%)

only Jewish people (78%)

not Christian or Jewish (59%)

no religion (71%)

only white but not born-again or evangelical (57%)

only gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender (86%)

only urban residents (59%)

(source: NBC)

as a data nerd and visualization hobbyist, it is driving me fucking insane that all these exit polls charts are 100% stacked. like way to hide the fact that white people are the overwhelming majority of the electorate, dumbasses.

[heertohbadisadhai]

adding citations to a document is so annoying like do you not trust me with shit? am i not credible enough for you?

[crow-caller]

A lot of people think autism research is solely this vague grouping of evil non autistic people guessing at things from afar, but as much as that happens, I want to inform you with insider knowledge a lot of modern autism research is done by autistic people!

And a fun fact related to this: "autism" is a common special interest! As in, a lot of autistic people have autism itself as a special interest (esp women, perhaps bc they're likely to be late or self diagnosed). People with a special interest in autism are also more likely to get involved in autism research as participants, and thus there's a known overrepresention of it as a special interest in data

[cyle]

still confused how to make any of these LLMs useful to me.

while my daughter was napping, i downloaded lm studio and got a dozen of the most popular open source LLMs running on my PC, and they work great with very low latency, but i can't come up with anything to do with them but make boring toy scripts to do stupid shit.

as a test, i fed deepseek r1, llama 3.2, and mistral-small a big spreadsheet of data we've been collecting about my newborn daughter (all of this locally, not transmitting anything off my computer, because i don't want anybody with that data except, y'know, doctors) to see how it compared with several real doctors' advice and prognoses. all of the LLMs suggestions were between generically correct and hilariously wrong. alarmingly wrong in some cases, but usually ending with the suggestion to "consult a medical professional" -- yeah, duh. pretty much no better than old school unreliable WebMD.

then i tried doing some prompt engineering to punch up some of my writing, and everything ended up sounding like it was written by an LLM. i don't get why anybody wants this. i can tell that LLM feel, and i think a lot of people can now, given the horrible sales emails i get every day that sound like they were "punched up" by an LLM. it's got a stink to it. maybe we'll all get used to it; i bet most non-tech people have no clue.

i may write a small script to try to tag some of my blogs' posts for me, because i'm really bad at doing so, but i have very little faith in the open source vision LLMs' ability to classify images. it'll probably not work how i hope. that still feels like something you gotta pay for to get good results.

all of this keeps making me think of ffmpeg. a super cool, tiny, useful program that is very extensible and great at performing a certain task: transcoding media. it used to be horribly annoying to transcode media, and then ffmpeg came along and made it all stupidly simple overnight, but nobody noticed. there was no industry bubble around it.

LLMs feel like they're competing for a space that ubiquitous and useful that we'll take for granted today like ffmpeg. they just haven't fully grasped and appreciated that smallness yet. there isn't money to be made here.

[gettheorion]

[musashi]

i am begging the other leftists on my fucking dash to stop reblogging anti-voting stuff until the election is over. there are so many doomers on this website who do not have the critical thinking skills to fucking use their brains and tons of them will be genuinely swayed by what they see online.

for the love of god, queue it for after november 5th. queue all your criticism for then. unleash the fucking beast after the election is over. but it is so fucking irresponsible to be reblogging that shit now.

[kittykatninja321]

what’s crazy is that just a year ago I was using the data on the CDC website to research HIV statistics/history for a college project, and right now someone who got the same assignment I did might be having a much harder time with that project because that information is being censored by the government

[xxxball-fondlerxxx]

this is the lgbtq community. the entire community. its all of them in one picture