Since I was old enough to remember, I can recall stories in the media and chatter among acquaintances that Social Security would not be there when I got old. It was pervasive and pernicious. I didn’t know at the time that it was generously financed. But it certainly explains this poll. Even though Social Security has an entirely different funding stream than the rest of the budget, because it is so frequently mentioned as unsustainable, it gets lumped in with the “cutbacks” allegedly needed in difficult economic times. And people lose faith that it will be there for them in the future. Because very rich and powerful people don’t want it to be there.

Battered by high unemployment and record home foreclosures, most Americans seem to have lost faith in another fundamental part of their personal finances: Social Security.

A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds that a majority of retirees say they expect their current benefits to be cut, a dramatic increase in the number who hold that view. And a record six of 10 non-retirees predict Social Security won’t be able to pay them benefits when they stop working.

Skepticism is highest among the youngest workers: Three-fourths of those 18 to 34 don’t expect to get a Social Security check when they retire.

To its credit, USA Today explains that public opinion is wrong and overly gloomy on this point. The fact that this skepticism is greater than the actuarial reality of the program – even if nothing is done, Social Security would be able to pay 3/4 of benefits after 2037 – aids the cause of the deficit scolds and the cat food commission leaders. They can cut benefits massively and frame it as saving the program. This is a classic quote:

Well-informed or not, public attitudes could affect the debate over what to do about Social Security, a subject that is likely to be raised when President Obama’s deficit commission delivers its report in December.

“It makes it easier to make some of the changes that we are inevitably going to have to make,” says Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “We could make changes and still have people collecting more in benefits than they’re expecting to see.”

Maya MacGuineas is on the payroll of the Pete Peterson Foundation.

A successful propaganda program must, over the years, inure people to a new threat and a new reality, and then provide a solution to that threat that will allow people to accept that reality. This has been the story of the Peterson plot to undermine Social Security. It’s working very well.

UPDATE: As Bill Scher notes, the internals of the poll actually shows that the public does not support major cuts to Social Security, and that the only change with the support of a majority of voters is lifting the payroll tax cap.