Monday, January 17, 2005

Propaganda at its "finest"

The Social Security Administration has been co-opted in the plan to "sell" privitization to the public, with directives issued as to how to respond when panicked people call them up & want to know if Social Security is really on the brink of disaster. Yes, they will tell them (no doubt relieving their minds a great deal), follow our great leader and his plan, he is great & good ... blah blah blah. Worse still, the monies for this campaign are to come from the SS trust fund! Nobody asked me if I wanted my future retirement money squandered on a propaganda campaign to destroy one of the greatest hallmarks of democracy that we've managed to create in this country: namely, a sense of entitlement for everyone, not just the rich. We might not have much when we retire, but we know we'll have something. That entitlement, the brainchild of the Roosevelt administration, is about to be ripped from us after 70 highly successful years. It must not happen.

Don't buy the lie.

This is Iraq all over again. It's insane that it's even happening. Surely it wasn't so long ago that if someone had used taxpayer funds to pay a journalist to hawk their platform (without actually admitting to what he was doing, even) or if the government wanted to use our Social Security monies for what is basically a publicity campaign (without even a passing mention of the truth), those concerned would be cut to shreds by the press and public.

Paul Krugman in the New York Times has an op-ed piece on this subject which includes a link to the excellent & informative Roger Lowenstein article about Social Security.


No comments: