ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the history of Social Security and the means by which it was justified and attacked by proponents and critics, respectively. It then describes the complex paths by which these two dynamics have operated, ingeniously reversing previously understood causal arrows to point squarely – and accusingly – at a group once considered sacrosanct. In The Great Transformation Polanyi argues that fascism was the tragic outcome of a reactionary 'countermovement' against the destruction inflicted by capitalism's attempt to subordinate the social world to total market logic. Welfarisation of Social Security has been effected through a series of interlocking rhetorical moves and narrative reframings: from contractualism to generational theft and redistribution; from earned benefits to expected entitlements; from moral hazard to micro-shaming. Supply-side economics and austerity economics converged to accomplish the transformation. When Social Security was introduced in the US in 1935, T. H. Marshall's brilliant theorisation of social citizenship was yet 15 years in the future.
