> In general my news is not good. Social
> Security privatization has a very strong
> hold on the students. They feel they will
> do better with their own little accounts
> than the "Ponzi game" program.
A few notes from my own online experience debating the rabid representatives who spread this ideology, particularly among the young:
This is one of the most important myths to hit head on. Whenever I've encountered the "Ponzi Scheme" argument and I've laid out what consitutes a Ponzi Scheme vs. what SS is, the response has been defeaning silence.
I also mention that it was CONSERVATIVES who opposed letting the government invest the SS trust fund in the market, which is the subtext of the "Ponzi Scheme" complaint. The result of this is often a fall-back to naked hatred of government. I then go on the offensive and ask why they use the internet, fruit of so much government subsidy, if they hate everything the goverment does so much. If I'm feeling really feisty, I might even mention the Lousiana Purchase (particularly if they try invoking their libertarian simulacrum of Thomas Jeffersons). In short -- the best defense is a good offense. Knock down the "Ponzi Scheme" complaint, and then just floor it.
> The political
> dilemma is that in many cases, this could
> turn out to be true, and there is no way to
> persuade an upper-middle class college kid
> their life may not turn out to be peaches
> and cream.
I'd suggest a quick look at *The Judas Economy* by William Wolman & Anne Colamosca, out of the Business Week stable. Their long-term prognosis for the college-educated professional class is *NOT* encouraging. The important thing here is to shake their naive faith that they can control everything if only government would get out of the way.
> One unhelpful feeling they have is that
> the Boomers are going to coast into
> retirement and then hand them the bill.
> In fact, most Boomers have a good number
> of years of payroll taxes ahead of them.
Another VIVID point to make is that SS means never having to empty your parents' bedpans.
The anti-SS propaganda depends on having ZERO awareness of systematic economic effects. One can make a beginning by talking about how SS vastly reduced poverty among the elderly, and then pointing out that this freed up more money to be spent on kids -- including investments in education which then increased THEIR earning power. If you keep it simple enough and repeat it enough times it does begin to sink in.
> Second, under mediocre economic projections,
> the "Gen X" people will have higher living
> standards on average in any case.
I like to point out that increased taxes would take only a slight fraction of increased projected earnings. Another argument that produces defeaning silence and quick changes of subject.
Basically, there's a lot of drumbeating propagandizing going on by people who can't even begin to respond to counter-arguments. If this propaganda is all that young people hear, then the result is a foregone conclusion. But once they see how clueless the zealots are when confronted with a few simple arguments, things can change.
Cyberspace is a VERY good place to do this.
-- Paul Rosenberg Reason and Democracy rad at gte.net
"Let's put the information BACK into the information age!"