Yup. But like the GDR, being adequate is not enough. Social Sec has to be accepted as better than private saving.
> . . .
>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.>
Fatalism about one's own economic prospects may or may not translate to left politics. In the olden days, popular talk had it that students were driven to revolt by mediocre job market prospects. I was never convinced of this. People were trying to talk about ways that white, middle-class students would put themselves in the picture, rather than define radicalism as empathy for others (e.g., minorities, the poor, etc.)
> . . .
>Another VIVID point to make is that SS means never having to empty your
parents' bedpans.>
Yeah but then you can be charged with wanting to abandon Grandma to the impersonal state for her care. Senator Simpson did this to great effect to a poor NSA officer in a hearing I attended some years ago.
> . . .
>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.>
In my direct conversations, this wasn't quite as easy as you make out, but it was basically the approach I took.
MBS