This post lays out a plausible scenario. The shift from defined benefit to defined contribution pension plans is a major part of the "great risk shift" where the American middle class is atomized and thrown onto various markets (health insurance, credit, housing, financial instruments [for retirement income]), all in the name of Freedomosity! Freedomitude! Freedominess! (tm).
So much for the neoliberal half of the equation. What's the link with neoconservatism? To take the everyday anxiety produced by the atomized marketization of the middle class and project it onto bogeys the State will protect you from. In Arizona it's ZOMG Brown People!!! (tm), while in Wisconsin, Walker falls back on an old standard, "on-line predators":
As we refocus government, public safety remains a priority. Our budget will restore truth in sentencing by repealing the early release program approved by the last administration. We will provide additional resources and positions in our DNA lab to assist our criminal investigations. And we will make sure that our children — those that are dearest to us — are protected from those who would do them harm. We provide additional resources to investigate on-line predators targeting our children. The state currently has over twenty thousand IP addresses of people who prey on our children, but we didn’t have the resources to track those criminals down. Now we will.
Now that's political affect in action, folks!
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