Social Security Privatization Study Questions #3

1. What does Thomas Frank suggest was the zeitgeist present after the war that made Social Security so popular?

 

 

2. What does Thomas Frank suggest is unique about the Bush administration's Commission to Strengthen Social Security as opposed to past Social Security commissions?

 

 

3. How does Thomas Frank counter the argument that Social Security is tainted by the social ills of that time and, therefore, is not "contemporary" enough?

 

 

4. How does Thomas Frank say the baby boom retirement crisis has already been accounted for?

 

 

5. What does Thomas Frank imply is unsettling about Treasury Secretary Paul O' Neill's statements about the "illusion" of the trust fund?

 

 

6. How is the Commission to Strengthen Social Security's attitude towards the NASDAQ bubble similar to its attitude towards wage growth?

 

 

7. What does Thomas Frank imply that Social Security is a "tantalizing suggestion" of?

 

 

8. What does Thomas Frank say is new about the recent wave of attacks on Social Security?

 

 

9. What does Thomas Frank mean when he says that the privatization of Social Security would be, in essence, a "marketization of politics"?

 

 

10. What does Kevin Phillips see as the effect of financialization on "the new management handbook"?

 

 

Extra Credit: What evidence refutes the claim made in section 2 that African-Americans receive less benefits from the current Social Security system?