THIS TRADITIONALLY BEING THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF LABOUR (except, of course, in the United States and Canada, who observe on the first Monday in September), Your Correspondent feels it best to use the occasion to address an issue which the working classes need to think all the more about.

Especially so the dregs of the Working Classes as are usually prime recruits for producerist thought and its articles of faith, reeking as they do of arrogant pride tinctured with contempt for (on the one hand) immigrants and welfare "basket cases" and (on the other) Jews, Wall Street, the City and International Syndicalists as are somehow "squeezing the honest working classes into a serious dilemma."

That issue I refer to is one which certain conservative groups and think tanks hold dear as an article of faith all the more:

None other than "the complete, final and binding denationalisation of a failed and failing State system of Social Security" in the "morally superior" United States.

Said denationalisation expected to be seen as "empowering" the Working Classes especially (and the lower such all the more) into a New Golden Age of Industry, Self-Reliance, Personal Responsibility, Thrift based on Cash Economy and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life which, so this line of thinking went, "was reduced to outright and utter contempt" under the State system as it "promoted dependency" when the Working Classes should be expected to "show some respect for personal responsibility" by saying No to charity as "leading to Moral Error and Weakness," among other common patsies and bromides.

And saying Yes to self-reliance and personal responsibility, preferably through forced retirement savings as involve especially the equities markets "as makes free-market capitalism with American characteristics all the more possible," not to mention ensuring their "rightful role and place" as Great White Father.

Unfortunately, some of its biggest droogs in K Street (especially so the American Enterprise Institute, the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the Hudson Institute) who see denationalisation of State Social Security as its last and only hope for the working poor are hesitant to acknowledge what may be some Inconvenient Truths to such an article of faith when applied to the dregs of the Working Classes somehow expected to "benefit" thereby.

In particular:

• The "retirement savings funds" being dominated by many of the same sworn enemies in Producerist thinking as are seen to be "keeping [the Working Classes] all the more enslaved."
• The likelihood of the Lower Working Classes being "advised" to sign up with such "funds" likely to make inapproriate investments tending to the speculative or otherwise questionable. Likewise with trading tactics such as "market timing," "day trading," "spread-betting" and involvement with "pump-and-dump" scams. 
• The potential for such "funds" being manipulated or perverted all the more by tacit "prudential self-regulation" being sanctioned.
• Fees, commissions and other charges (including such covering advertising and marketing expenses) having potential adverse affect on net returns.
• Loss of uncompensated tax revenue from deductions likely to be encouraged such "investing" in such "funds."
• High-pressure or otherwise inapproriate advertising and marketing strategems, as well as sales tactics lacking adequate and reasonable checks and balances or otherwise prone to abuse.
• General lack of transparency and openness in operations and management of funds.
• Utter disregard for the likelihood of a serious "correction" in the equities markets as are all the more involved in these "funds" having adverse effects on returns.
• General exploitation of the vulnerable element otherwise lacking any knowledge of how the equities markets work, let alone from anti-Semitic Producerist canards and propaganda.
• The whole concept being promoted as "mutual self-help," yet likely to be such in name only (what with the fund managers likely to see profits ensuing all the more, mostly from fee-related revenue).

Hence: To expect that the working-classes will actually see any semblance of "renewed healthy respect for self-reliance and personal responsibility" thanks to Social Security denationalisation amounts to nothing less than a pipe dream with overtures of sick humour.

And to expect that "mutual self-help" will empower the working classes as part of the whole is just nothing but empty words unless given the necessary tools and motivation towards those ends.

Hence, what prevents a serious study of the English friendly society model as something to empower the working classes as a serious Social Security replacement, what with conservative articles of faith making so much about mutual self-help as an agency of empowering the Lower Classes?

Think about it this May Day.