1983: The plan to take down Social Security: What does Lenin have to do with this?

[Hannah Bell]

There is a large group of people who never liked the New Deal, continue to argue against historical evidence that it was a fundamental failure, they hated Social Security from the start, and indeed ran against it as their central platform plank in the election of 1936...

The 1983 reform was particularly bitter to them, to the point that they gathered all the anti-Social Security folk to a conference in DC organized by Cato. The results of that conference were published in the Fall 1983 issue of Cato Journal under the title Social Security: Continuing Crisis or Real Reform...

Now in reading this from 1983 you can see that these people, while a little bitter at missing their shot in 1982 when Social Security crisis hit, were convinced they would get another shot at some point. But they also saw they needed more than hope. They needed an alternative vehicle and they needed a plan. They had the alternative vehicle, the IRA-the Individual Retirement Account, and they got busy pushing those. But they also understood they needed to win the message war, and so they turned to strategy crafted by Stuart Germanis and Peter Butler...

1. Create a political movement
2. Weaken and isolate your opponents
3. Prepare the public ground...

I would urge anyone really interested in Social Security to read the plan in full. Because you will see that the Economic Right followed it to the hilt, for example you hear clear echoes of Butler and Germanis in every speech Bush has made on this. I am not sure that everyone that draws from the messaging plan created at that 1983 conference is as directly and openly cynical about means and motives as these two. Operationally it doesn't matter much. Butler and Germanis' is a hugely successful marketing scheme and it worked. Brilliantly. The old were reassured, the economic stakeholders were drawn on board, the young were convinced that Social Security just wouldn't be there for them, and all blame conveniently placed on the Boomers. Evil genius to be sure, but marketing genius none the less.

http://angrybear.blogspot.com/2008/05/bw-on-soc-sec-v-what-does-lenin-have-to.html

Social Security: Achieving a Leninist Strategy (Caton 1983)

http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj3n2/cj3n2-11.pdf

[maryf]

1. K&Rnt

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. I would be surprised if anyone trusted retirement plans anymore.

It is revealing that the report referred to, above, mentions IRAs as tools "to provide funds for long term capital investments".
What is killing the anti-Soc. Security people is all that money being paid into the government fund is money not available for private capital to gamble with.
Of course the government spent our Soc. Sec. contributions, and banksters spent our IRA contributions, plus all the private pension funds and union funds. So now no one has a safe retirement plan. And with the economy predicted to be in the doldrums for years, what little money still left in retirement systems will not keep up with rising food and fuel costs.

[Hannah Bell]

5. "not available for private capital to gamble with." it is, though,

combined with the bush income tax cuts.

[blindpig]

3. It's worked pretty damned well

How many times have we heard the Cato Institute mouthed on this board?

[dmr]

4. K&R

Thank you!

[leftstreet]

6. Holy Crap! That Caton piece is terrifying

A must read concerning the strategy!


And, just WOW:

The aim is to weaken political support for the present system when the next financial crisis appears.

[Hannah Bell]

7. "caton" = "cato". my typo.

[leftstreet]

8. Ha, you're right! I did the same thing

Fascinating stuff though