>FWers - If we think it's important to ensure basic economic security for
>all citizens of the industrialized 'have' nations, what suggestions do you
>have as to how this should be accomplished?
>
>Sally Lerner
>
Questions like this bother me, and I'm not quite sure of why. It may be
because they suggest a certain permanence that may not really be there, or a
doability, if only we put our minds together and our shoulders to the wheel.
If the state were to ensure basic economic security, it would presumably
have to do so for a very long time. Could it do so? And if it did so, what
might the effect be?
In the former Soviet Union, the state guaranteed basic security (well beyond
the economic) for a period of seventy years. Then the state collapsed, and
people who had never had to look after their own security had to learn how
to do it. Many could not do so, and most who could managed only by
scrambling about half in the light, half in the shadow. "Don't ask me what
I do for a living. It's too distasteful!" is how one person put it.
In Brazil there are many statutory guarantees concerning welfare, health and
education, but they are of virtually no practical value. What is legislated
and what is done are two very different things. So people in the slums have
to look after themselves. They can, for the most part, manage to do so
because they have always done so.
In Canada, what basic economic security we have had is unraveling. Why? Is
it, as some maintain, because of rampant corporate greed, or is it because
we are having genuine problem in affording our social safety net? I believe
it is largely the latter, and I think we should begin calling a spade a
spade instead of pretending it is a diamond studded steam shovel.
What is a "have country" anyway? In UN statistics (1995 data), GNP per
capita for "High Income Economies" ranges from a low of US$9,700 for the
Republic of Korea to US$40,630 for Switzerland. Canada, typically perhaps,
is in the middle of the pack at US$19,380. Perhaps Switzerland can afford
to guarantee economic security, but can Korea? For that matter can Canada,
which may be moving downward among the "haves" rather than upward?
And yes, I am crabby this evening because I have to go out and chair a meeting.
Ed Weick
