Universal Symmetry and its Soft Breaking in Renormalizable Supersymmetric Field Theory

It is pointed out that every renormalizable supersymmetric field theory has a symmetry which is hidden in plain sight, but is usually broken by soft terms which obey supersymmetry. On the other hand, the terms which break supersymmetry softly may or may not break this symmetry. Implications for the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) are discussed.