Social Security: False Consciousness and Crisis (Hardcover)

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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" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description

Despite two decades of warnings about Social Security's projected bankruptcy, nothing is being done. The saying that Social Security is the third rail of American politics--touch it and you die--still holds true. This critical history argues that a major cause of the impasse is the misleading manner in which Social Security was depicted to the public, and the beliefs about the program which prevail as a result.

Most Americans see Social Security as retirement insurance, whereby taxpayers pay premiums or contributions which are held in trust in a trust fund to pay guaranteed benefits which will be theirs "as a matter of earned right," as America keeps a "compact between the generations." Unfortunately, the entire foregoing description is false. Attarian demonstrates that Social Security's officials and partisans deliberately fostered this false picture while downplaying the power of Congress to cut or eliminate benefits, and that the payroll tax mechanism of financing was done in order to influence beliefs. Social Security was structured and presented to the public in this manner so as to make it popular and politically invulnerable. This strategy succeeded, but its depiction of Social Security had crucial inaccuracies, which worsened as the program aged. The resulting "false consciousness" about Social Security decisively shaped the responses to the program's financial crises in the 1970s and 1980s. Attarian demolishes the Social Security myths so that debate can proceed based on facts, not fictions.

He also reveals the lethal faults of numerous reform proposals. Most refuse to cut current benefits and are thereby saddled with huge costs of transition to a new system. Many risk politicizing the stock market and promote a new "false consciousness" of painless cure and getting something for nothing. Virtually all ignore the larger economic and political context which threatens to defeat their purpose. Attarian concludes with a proposal to radically restructure the program from a universal entitlement to a floor of protection.

Treating Social Security in unusually broad perspective, Attarian is critical of both the status quo and privatization, and offers an alternative to both. The book will be of interest to policy makers as well as citizens concerned about the future of Social Security.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 411 pages
• Publisher: Transaction Publishers (September 11, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765801272
• ISBN-13: 978-0765801272
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,393,354 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars facing an unfortunate myth, March 21, 2003

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

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.

3 of 4 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)

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.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An invaluable research tool, March 21, 2003

By	Charles (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews

"Social Security: False Consciousness and Crisis" is a must read for those interested in the history and legal underpinnings of social security. Anyone in the process of formulating an opinion on the future of social security is well-advised to have Mr. Attarian's excellent book near at hand. The footnotes alone are worth the price.