The Royal Scam

Michael Katz's "The Price of Citizenship" opened my eyes to the ways in which the right wing advances its anti-human policies through psuedo-science, public relations, and disinformation campaigns. Not much has changed since then, except that the volume of the lies has increased. Here's my review from May 2001:

METHOUGHT I HEARD A VOICE CRY "SLEEP NO MORE!" May 23, 2001

With "The Price of Citizenship," Katz performs a much needed demystification of the ways in which the social welfare state and the poor have been attacked and continue to be attacked by social and fiscal conservatives under the guise of consumer choice and the chimerical promise of the marketplace as the best of all possible ways to administer "welfare." A work of breathtaking scope, Katz examines each of the programs of the welfare state -- Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Unemployment Insurance, AFDC ("welfare"), Public Eduation, etc. -- gives a brief history of the inception of each, and then gives a recent history of how each program has come under attack by the forces of business and and their shortsighted friends in government.

Here's how they do it, according to Katz: Using the same master narratives of sorting citizens into deserving and undeserving categories to begin the assault, then tightening the screws on the "undeserving," the conservative business forces follow up with the panacea of the marketplace as the be-all and end-all solution: get those lazy minority mothers off the dole and into jobs; close down the loopholes in unemployment so that no one will qualify; drive people slowly toward the assumption of more and more risk by scaring them with junk statistics on the imminent demise of Social Security and then offering them the "solution" of mutual funds -- etc., etc., etc. The strategy is always the same: the market will knit up the ravell'd sleeve of care, when in fact it really serves to unravel the social safety net for those who need it most, and, weaves new money-making nets for others in the name of "efficiency" and "choice." These special stronger nets are the new welfare schemes for corporations and the upper and upper middle class.

One of the finest chapters deals with underhanded manipulation by conservatives of the public with regard to viability of Social Security. Katz convincingly shows that Social Security is not in any danger of going bankrupt -- period. He shows how the forces arrayed against Social Security, through misinformation, through the politics of playing younger workers against older workers, has managed to convince most Americans that they will either not recieve their benefits or recieved reduced benefits. Indeed, until I read this chapter, I was one sheep among the many. He then goes on to show how the various "choice" schemes proposed to "fix" Social Security through investment in the stockmarket -- either individually or collectively -- would serve to make financial companies billions and billions of dollars. In every chapter, Katz follows the money, and, sadly it usually leads to the ultra-right think tanks whose clients most stand to profit from the privatization of government social welfare programs.

It may sound by this review that "The Price of Citizenship" is a muckraking screed. Or that it was written by a conspiracy nut. It is neither. Instead it is a deeply researched work that convinces through facts as well as through narrative that the forces of the marketplace through the instrument of the ideology of the market as espoused by the right wing have been successful in undermining the foundations of U.S. social welfare programs (which frankly weren't much to begin with). Katz never uses invective -- the strongest word he uses is "underhanded" in his description of the scuttling of Clinton's health plan by business and medical interests -- instead he marshalls facts, questions assumptions, and draw important parallels and connections between the assaults on all of these programs. After reading this book, you'll be more than prepared to do some debunking of the conventional wisdom about Social Security, "Workfare" programs, HMOs, etc. May I dare say Katz has done us all, and even his country, a noble service by putting the lie to the master lie of the marketplace as the best solution for what ails us. Voucher this, baby!