So as some of you may know, as a military member living overseas, I get a couple of allowances to compensate for the difference in cost of living. One of these is the cost-of-living allowance (COLA), which is pegged to a standard "basket" of household goods and whatnot, and adjusted for the cost of these in dollars in your location, versus the cost of the same items in the US. They change this real value of COLA every couple of years. It's then adjusted for the difference in currency valuation (dollar versus Euro, in my case). I also get an overseas housing allowance, which is based on a set value of rent in Euro, but fluctuates as the dollar changes against the Euro; I think they adjust for currency fluctuations weekly. And I get a utility allowance, which is figured in much the same way as COLA.

So, they recently re-adjusted COLA. Because of higher-than-normal inflation in the US, it's now comparatively cheaper to live here than it was before, as compared to the US. (Note: I said "as compared to the US." It is not, in fact, cheaper to live here in real terms.) This means COLA goes down. Considerably. Also, the dollar has been gaining on the Euro in the last couple months.

Anyway, the point of all this is just to complain about the fact that due to changes in the above allowances, I took a $400 pay cut last month, despite the fact that it's not actually any less expensive to live here. It's just more expensive to live in the US, so our pay goes down because it's based on a ratio. That's crap.