I’ve been talking with some friends and fellow bloggers about how we can help educate the public about the issues surrounding Social Security. What’s needed is boiling down the issues into simple talking points that can be understood by busy people who have been hearing for years that Social Security is going bust. In fact, one 1995 poll showed that the younger generation are more likely to believe in UFOs than that Social Security will be there for them when they retire. It will take simple, and compelling stories (built on a foundation of truth) that can be made into effective presentations, oped pieces and ads. Here is an approach I’ve been thinking about: Explain the dates.

One reason that the Social Security issue is so confusing for people has been the decades long sales job that has been run by those who really don’t like government being in the business of providing benefits to individuals. They say they believe that individuals are corrupted by Social Security (it’s socialism, you know).

When FDR first put the program in place, there were tremendous battles opposing it from the conservative forces. And as we all know now, when George W. Bush ran for elected office in 1978, he was already campaigning on privatizing Social Security.

When Ronald Reagan came into office there was recognition that the program was unsustainable as it was then configured (back then, a pay-as-you-go system where one generation covered the bill for the previous generation) because the baby boomer generation was so much larger in comparison to the next generations.

In 1983, the Greenspan commission was convened to come up with a solution to the problem and they recommended increasing the payroll contributions by a small amount for a number of years so that in essence the baby boomers would be pre-funding their retirement by building up Social Security reserves that could be drawn on when they themselves retired. These excess payroll taxes have been used to buy US treasuries. The treasury notes that have been purchased plus the interest on the notes are what is known as the Social Security trust fund.

Today, when people talk about fixing the Social Security problem they are talking about two different problems with two different dates. When you talk to your friends and family about what is proposed, you should be careful to clarify what is signified by these dates and what the politicians are saying when they talk about the crisis in Social Security.

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Blogblocks & Blogospheric Solidarity

I have written about Blogblocks before. They are the blog equivalent to television advertising roadblocks…where the same ad will be playing on many channels concurrently. On TV, the roadblock usually involved an as-yet-banned product from your neighborhood pharmaceutical giant. It is often a product that will trick your body into thinking it is still alive, or hear songs from the ’60s playing in your head, not unlike that other purple pill. In the blogosphere, it could be something like photographs of America’s latest Hell, Iraq. You know, those juicy ones that no one wants you to see…

Now what if that were to happen? What if nearly every blog you lighted upon showed the reality of Iraq in stark closeup? Hell, you get to see trucks driving around with fetuses filling your visual field. Why not mutilated innocents Iraqis? No offense, but Jesus would probably hesitate before signing off on such missions. Some missionaries we’ve become!

I think it would be pretty hard for the so-called “mainstream media” or “MSM” to ignore even the phenomenon of such astonishing saturation alone, not to mention the content. But even if they didn’t, it would be pretty hard to avoid seeing it eventually. One could be a veritable Goddard with Time.

Such tools will surely come to pass, and one would hope that, even though it is a soft tool, it would not be weilded lightly, unless that be the corrective medicine needed.

Groupblog Synergy

The Editor & Publisher has a column today by Greg Mitchell which he frames thusly:

Inside The ‘Gannon’ Case: How Blogs Broke It Wide Open
For the first time last month, I was able to follow a “blog probe” from the start, and it was amazing to see the resources and skills the larger sites can bring to bear on a single issue or controversy.

and later on he says:

This is when I really started following the pursuit. It was amazing to see how many participants, at how many sites, took part, and the skills at their command, mainly Web-based. The material the detectives at DailyKos and other blogs drew out of obscure or abandoned Web sites — and caches — regarding Talon, Gannon, and a dozen other threads was astounding, although I couldn’t quite tell if any of the searches and grabs required talents well beyond the reach of even the most advanced computer wonks.

The Detectives at Daily Kos… And this is just one blog, among many, even among many group blogs digging into the story, fleshing it out.
Now, what if everyone at one or two groups blogs dug in, shared, and presented their findings, so that one could not help but light upon some new piece of evidence or insight. A sort of intrablog blogblock. Groupblog Synergy.

As Bubba Chrishnamerdy says: “Think on these thangs.”

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