Ownership society scam

Brian Holmes, from here.

Under the logic of neoliberalism, much of what used to be welfare state entitlements has been transformed into fungible private assets (health insurance policies, 401k accounts, private suburban homes, etc) and delivered over to the nominal control of individuals or relatively small and localized groups. These individuals and groups then find themselves at the mercy of large, sophisticated, rapacious financial operators who offer them further market schemes encouraging them to speculate on their tiny stake of capital, in order to expropriate some generous percentage of their assets as we have just seen done so blatantly in the course of the recent housing bubble.

Everyone is given a small stake in the state, which is then privatized in their hands to squander. This further establishes the notion that people's misery is their own fault, and that government efforts to aid them are misguided.