The Juice Master wonders:
Why our elites and media elites have such sheer contempt and hatred for social security. It’s there for everyone! It’s a solid government program which gives everyone the peace of mind that no matter what, there will be some money available for you to take care of yourself in your most vulnerable years. It’s such a miniscule portion of the taxes we pay, and for the ultra-rich screamers who hate social security the most, it’s a negligible portion of their income, and it’s capped! It’s not money wasted on fraud and abuse, it’s extremely efficient with the kind of overhead any charity or organization in the world would die to achieve, and it’s just an amazing program.
What I'll never understand is how such a selfish and punitive proposal that sprang from a small clique of rich and well-connected businessmen and which relied on the discredited arguments of a pair of hack economists, became accepted as an emblem of civic-minded virtue. And the sad truth is, the Liberty Leaguers, the Hayekian cranks and their think-tank/media progeny been gradually winning the war of ideas, in tiny and barely discernible increments, for over 70 years now, and truth to tell, they're still winning the battle now. How do we know this? Every time you hear someone who's smart enough to know better remind us of the urgent need to embark upon "entitlement reform," that's another notch on their bedpost.
Of course it doesn't help that appealing to Americans' basest and shabbiest instincts has a proven track record of political success.
How to fix? Honestly, I have no idea anymore. I'm almost of the mind that we will need to repeat the meltdown of 1929-33, with 25-percent unemployment and rural America reduced to an uninhabitable desert all over again, to remind people---and Red Staters in particular---about (a) why programs like Social Security were started in the first pace, and (b) the wisdom in preserving them and keeping them fully funded, even if it means raising lots of taxes on rich people to do it. And who knows, that may very well happen, depending on whose forecasts you believe. But given the current ideological divide that exists in the Village in our time, where a Democratic President governs to the right of Richard Nixon and his Republican opponents govern to the right of Francisco Franco, it's hard to see where the light of common sense---let alone the the light of history---ever seeps into the chambers of a ruling class that has become hardwired over a generation or so to judge every government social-welfare program by the rules of market pricing and return-on-investment. About the best we can do for now is keep stalling for time until a new generation of Better Democrats can be groomed and recruited for service. But it's going to take some time either way, and we are slowly running out of it.
---Vitelius
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