Social Security propaganda... on Social Security phone line.

[Negatron]

Earlier today, I had to call Social Security, because my check did not arrive this month, and I was placed on hold for about ten minutes. During the hold time, a series of recorded "informational" messages are played. I noted that the content of these messages had changed from last time I called SS.

Callers are informed that due to the impending retirement of baby boomers, Social Security "will require changes." Clearly, this is intended to reinforce belief in the manufactured "crisis."

In and of itself, maybe that isn't so bad, but it gets worse. Next, callers are told that "many people are under the mistaken impression that the money the pay into Social Security goes into a special account, which they can draw from later. This is not true. The Social Security taxes you pay now are used to pay benefits to current beneficiaries." The term "taxes" is used several times.

This is a wonderfully subtle piece of work. In one brief paragraph, the idea that Social Security is a tax and a redistributive welfare system is reinforced. There is also a mention of private accounts, with the implication that "you thought you had a real Social Security account, but you don't. It's just tax and spend welfare that goes straight from you to someone else." Well, guess who's going come along and fix that?

This is clearly all designed to have callers scratching their heads, going "hmm, I didn't know that." Callers who had thought that Social Security was a personal retirement insurance program are going to be disabused of that inconvenient notion, and informed that it's really just another kind of welfare in need of reform. As it turns out, callers are told, you don't have an individual account of any kind, the money is just taxed from you and handed to someone else. Without mentioning Bush or piratization by name, the caller is carefully "set up" to support Dear Leader when he comes in and "fixes" Social Security, turning it from a another welfare black hole into the kind of system you always ("mistakenly") thought it was, the kind where your money goes into your own account.

I know a thing or two about psychology and marketing, and this very subtle ploy being directed at Social Security recipients is pure genius. Never think that these people don't know what they are doing. When we put corporate types who can sell ice to an eskimo for a profit in charge of nations, we can't be surprised when they sell us down the river for a song.

[cornermouse]

1. Social security employees have been testifying that they

were told to push Bush's privatization scheme. If you want to bring home the reality of the future (according to Bush's privatization scheme) to your kids, I suggest you call them and tell them to get ready because you're going to be moving in with them.

[damntexdem]

2. What a scam!

Here's a reply I wrote to another board where it had been suggested that SS privatization might not be so bad:

Why is the Dubya plan a threat to Social Security?

1. Social Security is meant as SECURITY, not as a gamble.
2. A defined benefit is generally superior to a defined contribution – I have both and always choose the former when I have a choice.
3. We’ve paid in, and the government had damned-well pay us back.
4. The economic assumptions behind the crisis scenario (expenditure/revenue parity in 2018, depleted Trust Fund in 2042) are so pessimistic that, if true, the privatized plan would not produce as promised.
5. The economic assumptions behind the privatization plan are so optimistic that, if true, the current system would not face crisis for the foreseeable future.
6. Although SS law does not GUARANTEE benefits, American politics has done so, and it is the citizenry’s responsibility to hold the politicians’ feet to the fire to make sure that the benefits are paid.
7. The very people who are loudest in shouting that SS law does not guarantee benefits are the same ones who want to make changes that will threaten those benefits – they are the problem, not the law.
8. Any imbalance in SS caused by the Boomer demographics could more than be made up for, several times over, through the revenue enhancements of simply not renewing the Dubya tax cuts for the rich.
9. There is no validity to the argument that if and when SS expenditures outstrip its revenues, so that it must dip into its Trust Fund’s holdings in U.S. Treasury notes, this will cause terrible fiscal strain on the Fed budget. This argument basically says that if the Fed Govt must pay back its debts, it would be unable to do so. If the government defaulted on the SS Treasury notes, just as on any others, the economic fallout would far outstrip any SS security ‘crisis,’ or any other fiscal crisis. If that were to happen, Americans (and likely the entire world) could forget about their pensions, their investments, and their savings – there would be such massive financial collapse.
10. Any who want to put more aside for retirement can already do so through a wide variety of tax-deferred plans.
11. Dubya’s plan will serve one industry: stock brokers.
12. Dubya’s plan is a shot across the bow that the rightwing intends that U.S. society, and world society, will be a meaner, more-callous society that does not care for its members.

[Trish1168]

3. You forgot one thing

W's plan actually does NOTHING to help the solvency of SS. In other words, his 'piratization' of accounts will still mean benefit cuts (which he plans to do) or tax increases (which he won't do) in order to prevent it from going bankrupt (if it is heading in that direction).

:)

[eridani]

4. What you can do

Call. After you call your senators and congressional representatives, follow instructions below and complain to Social Security.
• Call the Social Security Help Line at 1-800-772-1213
• Press 1 for English
• Then press the number 3
• Finally, press 0, where you listen to these messages while waiting for a customer service representative
• Be nice—remember that the customer service representative didn’t make this idiotic policy. Congratulate the employee union for making a stand.

[linazelle]

5. Only the most moronic people believe SS established "accounts"

While the message sounds like it may be effective, it's still not logical if it's based on an assumption that people think they have personal social security accounts. Nobody I've ever known has thought that. But then, only the most moronic support BushCo and logic for them is an unknown entity.