Social Security: False Consciousness and Crisis [Paperback]

John Attarian (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 28, 2006

One of today's most important national concerns is the projected bankruptcy of Social Security some time in the next few decades and the resultant inability to pay full benefits on time. It has been said that Social Security is the third rail of American politics--touch it and you die. Consequently, it took over two decades of warnings before it was established as a major domestic concern. In Social Security, now in paperback, John Attarian argues that the major cause of this impasse has been the misleading manner in which the program has been depicted to the public, and the beliefs about Social Security that prevail as a result.

Most Americans see Social Security as retirement insurance under which taxpayers pay premiums to buy benefits for old age, with their contributions being held in a trust fund that will pay guaranteed benefits as an earned right. Attarian demonstrates that this false picture was deliberately cultivated by Social Security officials to ensure the program's constitutionality, while downplaying the power of Congress to eliminate, cut, delay, or tax benefits or deny them to certain classes of people. It was also presented in this manner to the public so as to make it popular and politically invulnerable. The resultant false consciousness about Social Security has decisively shaped the responses to the program's financial crises over the last two decades and helped preclude corrective action.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Well written and drawing on lots of research. Attarian is especially thorough in reporting how the program was misleadingly presented to the public, and on the discrepancies between the perceptions and the realities of Social Security."--A. Haeworth Robertson, founder and president, the Retirement Policy Institute "It's a first rate piece of work."--Peter G. Peterson, chairman, The Blackstone Group "At last, John Attarian tells the full story. In comprehensive detail he shows, blow by blow, how Social Security's key leaders and advocates were compelled to describe the program in one way to the public and in an entirely different way to legislators and judges. America's understanding of Social Security remains confused today, even as discussion of far-reaching reforms are underway which makes this book timely indeed."--Neil Howe, LifeCourse Associates

"A work of seminal importance for today's national debate on the subject, Social Security is a very strongly recommended for all students of political science, fiscal politics, and economic trends as they have effected the Social Security program in the past and the present, as well as projected impacts concerning the future of Social Security's availability to American citiens in the future"-Midwest Book Review

From the Inside Flap

Advance Comments

"As the United States (along with the rest of the developed countries) debates how to reform our pay-as-you-go retirement system and make it sustainable in an aging world, it is essential that we speak and think clearly about how we got here. We need to look critically at the dysfunctional mythology surrounding words like 'trust fund,' 'social insurance,' 'earned rights,' and 'lock box.' That's just what John Attarian does in this comprehensive and critical overview of the history of Social Security. It's a first-rate piece of work."
--Peter G. Peterson, Chairman, The Blackstone Group; President and Co-Founder, The Concord Coalition

"Well written and drawing on lots of research. Does a good job explaining the coming crisis in Social Security, particularly the often overlooked political aspects. Attarian is especially thorough on reporting how the program was misleadingly presented to the public, and on the discrepancies between the perceptions and the realities of Social Security."
--A. Haeworth Robertson, Former Chief Actuary of Social Security (1975-1978); Founder and President, The Retirement Policy Institute

"Nearly every historian who looks carefully at growth of Social Security both as a federal program and as a popular mythology comments at least in passing on how the artful or shall we say downright deceitful use of key terms like 'insurance' and 'statutory rights' has to pave the way for the program's expansion. At last, John Attarian tells the full story. In comprehensive detail he shows, blow by blow, of how Social Security's key leaders and advocates were compelled to describe the program in one way to the public and in an entirely different way to legislators and judges. America's understanding of Social Security remains confused today, even as discussion of far-reaching reforms are underway which makes this book timely indeed.
--Neil Howe, Life Course Associates --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 411 pages
• Publisher: Transaction Publishers (February 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1412804914
• ISBN-13: 978-1412804912
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,783,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars facing an unfortunate myth, March 20, 2003

By 

Paul Gottfried "basset man" (Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Social Security: False Consciousness and Crisis (Hardcover)

John Attarian's critical study of the social security system, which, according to this investigation, is anything but secure,should shake the confidence of younger Americans that their government-controled retirement funds will be waiting for them when they retire. Attarian insists that funds that we have been led to believe have been hermetically set apart for pensions are actually being diverted to other purposes. Equally relevant,social security funds are being rapidly depleted, a fact that is disguised by the way the federal government keeps its books. This looming crisis is further managed by treating social security as a sacred "entitlement" that both of our national parties are unalterably committed to preserving. Attarian argues persuasively that this sacralization prevents the political process from dealing with social security realistically, as a program whose time has come and gone.
Even those who do not agree with the argument of this book should read it carefully, since it makes a strong case for abolishing or radically rehauling a costly federal program. Moreover, Attarian combines a detailed knowledge of economics and economic policy with an elegant writing style. In his hand, economics ceases to be the dismal science and leads instead to witty prose. This book fills a curricular niche in policy courses that political science and economic departments tend to offer. Unlike most monographs I have assigned for courses in this field,however, Attarian's book is a pleasure to read. I shall order it for my students the next time I decide to cover this theme.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the future of an illusion, October 10, 2003

By 

Ian Wright (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Social Security: False Consciousness and Crisis (Hardcover)

John Attarian's Social Security is the kind of book you loan to your leftist friends when they begin harping about the need for more government intervention in health care, the private sector, etc. Then you remember that leftists aren't the smartest people on the planet; if an argument can't be reduced to an easy to remember slogan, then it won't stick with them anyway. Attarian doesn't provide slogans, but he does give readers a very well documented history of Social Security, from the arguments before its passage in 1935 to the present with stopping off points in 1976 and again 1983, the years when funding crises revealed the deep but not unforeseen flaws in the program. Before entering into the history of the program though, he first lays out the current situation with the program and examines the dismal prognosis for it in the coming years using the forecasts issued by recent SSA actuaries. In a nutshell, the program is destined to go bust and there's no solution to the problem that doesn't involve ceding even more power to the government; and even this would only provide short-term relief. Even if the government were to confiscate 100% of the earnings of every worker in the U.S., it would not be enough to salvage the program. Many of the problems facing SS are well known, but the author provides concrete reasons for the present unease among younger Americans.

I personally found the focus on the early years of SS to be the most interesting. Here, the author culls the documentary record and shows that from its inception, SS was based on fraudulent premises. FDR and his advisors knew that SS was antithetical to the values and attitudes of 1930s era Americans, so they crafted their legislation to make the program sound as if it were an annuity for old age funded by a lifetime of worker contributions. During this time, government handouts were a source of shame and humiliation, so the program's proponents designed a marketing scheme that would assuage the pride of intended beneficiaries. Then as now, the language of the insurance industry has been used to bolster the public's faith in SS -- referred to by supporters and the very legislation itself as "insurance" and "annuity".

Drawing off of Supreme Court decisions, congressional testimony, private and public papers of administrative officials, the opinions of such luminaries as Henry Hazlitt in addition to private insurance actuaries, Attarian exposes several powerful myths of SS. 1) The SS trust fund is not really a trust fund. SS is paid out to eligible recipients from current tax revenues (i.e., current workers pay for Granny's paltry monthly stipend). This point is fundamental to understanding the "lock box" lie started by Republicans in the 1990s and picked up later by Al Gore and the Democrats. The Social Security Trust Fund is not really a trust fund. 2) The funding of the SS program is contingent upon an ever growing pool of workers and an economy destined for limitless growth and productivity increases. Unfortunately, the U.S. has been in a steady decline economically for decades. Real wages are stagnating or shrinking, white collar jobs are making a mass exodus to Third World countries, and the savings rate of the average American stands at a pathetic 5% of net income. 3) SS surpluses are required BY LAW to be spent by Congress as part of its general budget outlay (segues with point 1). It's been this way since the program's inception and any chatter about "saving" the surplus and stuffing it into a "lock box" are just more lies by politicians looking to avoid hard decision making. Workers have seen a steady erosion of SS benefits over time because the program is simply unworkable. Early beneficiaries received far in excess of what they actually paid in; present and future workers will have to pay more and more while getting less in return. The author is very frank in what this means when the money finally runs out in 2015 or so: A profound loss of faith in government followed by potential violence and political upheaval. Imagine paying your whole life into a program only to find out that the funds you thought would be paid back to you with interest don't exist. Millions of Americans are unaware of this fact and their reaction will be anything but mild when the collapse comes. If you're still drawing breath in 2015, you won't have to use your imagination at all, you can watch the mess unfold before your very eyes.

Attarian's writing style is fluid and the topics are well-structured. There are some technical discussions on the mechanics of the program, but I had no problem following them thanks to the author's ability to establish a framework useful to both layman and expert. The testimony and documentary evidence that he has gathered from 60+ years of SS is truly impressive. Both sides of the SS debate are well represented, but the author shows no remorse in exposing the deceptions artfully used by SS partisans. Neither is he reluctant to demolish current "save our SS plans". This book is very timely because of recent legislative efforts to expand the Medicare program. Like SS, Medicare is in dire straits financially, but this fact has not halted or swayed our boneheaded politicians from using the same bad planning and disingenuous rhetoric that went into getting the original SS Act passed. Social spending and bad planning will continue so long as we are stuck with our beloved "democracy". What few people realize is that economic laws are as immutable as those of physics. You can print more and more fiat money and run massive deficits only up to a certain point. It's even possible for the government to confiscate more wealth from private citizens, but eventually, the bag of tricks runs out and the politicians will be left to face mobs of angry workers defrauded out of decades of wages.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read, March 31, 2003

By 

Bert H. Mclachlan (Katy, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Social Security: False Consciousness and Crisis (Hardcover)

With Social Security's bankruptcy coming up sooner than our members of Congress want to admit, John Attarian's book is a must read. It is not only very thoroughly researched, but absolutely demolishes the web of myths, lies and "spin" by which we have been misled about what is really going on with our national retirement system. In fact, one of the major myths that he destroys is that there is no crisis.

But beyond bringing the truth into focus, this book then constructively uses this better understanding of the facts to also diagnose some of the major proposed solutions to Social Security's problems. And he concludes, with typical candor and honesty, "This problem is well nigh insoluble,", although he does offer a "modest proposal" of some of the tough actions that will be necessary to get us out of the mess that all of these political falsehoods have covered up.