Stealing from Social Security Is NOT a Debt Solution -- Why Do the Media Promote This Dangerous Myth

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/151601/stealing_from_social_security_is_not_a_debt_solution_--_why_do_the_media_promote_this_dangerous_myth

The conventional wisdom among the current generation of school reformers is that bad teachers are to blame for the failure of many of our children to learn. Applying this logic to the current debates over the budget and the economy, we should be pointing a big finger of blame at the media.

As survey after survey shows, the vast majority of the public are incredibly ignorant of the most basic facts about the budget and the economy. If we treated their teachers in the media the way the educational reformers treat public school teachers, few economics and budget reporters would have jobs.

One needs only to pick up a newspaper or turn on the television to get examples of thoroughly awful reporting. When we hear pledges to reduce the projected deficits over the next 12 years by $2tn or $4tn, how many people have any clue how large these reductions – on which the current debt ceiling talks between President Obama and House speaker John Boehner turn – are, relative to projected spending or projected GDP over this period? (The $4tn figure is 8.7% of projected spending and 3.7% of GDP.)

How about that $14.3tn figure for the debt ceiling? That's a really big number, really scary. So is just about every number connected with the United States budget. We are a huge country with a huge economy. Competent reporters would focus on this being about 90% of US GDP.

More at the link --

[midnight]

1. Thanks for putting it so clearly.... Stealing from Social Security

is not a debt solution....

[spanone]

2. media, media, media

[Jackpine Radical]

3. As Upton Sinclair said,

"It is very difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."