US News and World Report has an article for us:Social Security Is a Fantasy and Ponzi Scheme; How to Fix It
By Jean M. Twenge
Posted January 29, 2010
America today is subsisting on fantasy. Facebook allows us to think we actually have 500 friends, grade inflation has convinced young people they are smarter than they actually are, and we have a hollow economy based on debt and false promises. The giant Ponzi scheme of Social Security is one of the most egregious examples of our delusional optimism.
Underneath the headline is a telling squib:
Jean M. Twenge is a professor of psychology at San Diego State University and author of Generation Me.
Look:
As my coauthor W. Keith Campbell and I document in The Narcissism Epi-demic, the prevailing attitude in this country has become "Me first." Believing that you deserve a Social Security check, even if you don't need it, is a sterling example of entitlement.
And believing that others don't need one is a sterling example of I've got my sterling, jack.
12 comments:
As my coauthor W. Keith Campbell and I document in The Narcissism Epi-demic, the prevailing attitude in this country has become "Me first."
Chris Lasch died, let's see, nearly 16 years ago so it's probably safe to plagiarise Culture of Narcissism without anyone noticing.
"Exesso", says WV; an interesting concept for a super-hero.
But J. Goldberg is still around and Paul Rahe's got Soft Despotism on the shelf.
I felt a twenge of guilt reading this article.
Who knew that Aldo Nova had been singing about Social Security?
Here in the antipodes, "Soft De-spotism" is a brand of laundry soap.
And LONG before there was J Goldberg there was Ami Perrin's "Libertine Fascism - Calvinists, Hobbesians and the Poorly Dressed Totalitarian"...
Epi-demic??!!??
Somehow the demic is only marginally connected to the Epi?
Wikipedia tells us from Greek epi- upon + demos people
How dare those retired Amurkans steal money from good honest plutocrats!?!
HOW CAN THEY SLEEP AT NIGHT!
/Pete Peterson
~
How dare those retired Amurkans steal money from good honest plutocrats!?!
Do those liberals know what Social Security is doing to cat food futures?
Paul Rahe's got Soft Despotism on the shelf.
I hope it's illustrated. ROWR.
Believing that you deserve a Social Security check, even if you don't need it, is a sterling example of entitlement.
Seems to me that taking away that 'entitlement' aspect of Social Security and replacing it with a 'need' aspect -- so you pays your money in but only gets something back if you meet some minimum-misery standard -- would break a social contract, leading to discontent, and invidious comparisons with bludgers getting more back than they put in and where's my share, and a general rise of me-first attitudes in the place of mutuality.
Surely no-one would be actively promoting such a situation.
The haves would, I'm sure, feel more in touch with the common man if their excess wealth was taxed away. Let's get on that.
How dare those retired Amurkans steal money from good honest plutocrats!?!
HOW CAN THEY SLEEP AT NIGHT!
I sleep in the morning & afternoon, the night time being the right time.
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