National Industrial Conference Board Ammerican Affaris, Vol XI, no. 1, 1949

National Industrial Conference Board American Affairs, Vol XI, no. 2, 1949

National Industrial Conference Board American Affairs, Vol XI, no. 3, 1949

National Industrial Conference Board American Affairs, Vol XI, no 4, 1949

National Industrial Conference Board American Affaris, Vol XII, no 1, 1950

National Industrial Conference Board American Affairs, Vol XII, no. 3, 1950

National Industrial Conference Board American Affairs, Vol XII, no. 4, 1950

National Industrial Conference Board American Affairs, Vol XII, no. 2, 1950

A famous Norwegian dramatist has said: a theory lasts for thirty years. If this is true, then the year 1966 would be not only the thirtieth year since the birth of Keynes’ General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, but also the year of its death. It could then be shown that what is generally understood by “Keynesianism” does not involve a change in the evolutionary trend of economic doctrines, especially of monetary theories.

This is a concise critical history of the federal program of Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI), popularly known as Social Security. It focuses on a crucial but under-examined aspect of the program: how Social Security was marketed to the American public, the false consciousness which that marketing created, and how that false consciousness is a cause of the current political quagmire — and the likely meltdown of the program sometime in this century and its subsequent inability to pay full benefits on time to the retiring baby boomers.