One of Bush's talking points has been wanting the U.S to become an "ownership society." He likes to cite the rise in home ownership under his watch, and you have to give him credit for that -- it was made possible entirely due to the low interest rates that were implemented to try to shore up a failing economy. (Though, if he's going to blame Clinton and al Quaeda for the recession, shouldn't he also credit them with the housing boom?)
Anyhoo, another part of this "ownership society" is the privatizing of Social Security. Bush wants people to be forced to invest in the stock market rather than pay into a guaranteed government account. Setting aside the idiocy of having the retirements of every citizen depend on how well they know how to gamble on the stock market, I think there's another, sinister side to this plan, and I think it's intentional. Forcing citizens to be invested in the stock-market causes them to be, de facto, part of Big Business. You're not going to be as tempted to object to policies that benefit G.E. when your retirement is based on G.E. doing well. You'll be more likely to overlook government bailouts, monopolistic practives, corrupt governemt contracts, and the occasional oil spill, if it means you can afford that retirement condo in Florida.
I am of course, just talking out of my hat about this -- I haven't seen any commentary from actual political analysts or economists that support this notion. However, it's such a brilliant, evil plan that I just have to believe that it's true.
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