The Welfare State As Piggy Bank

The central discussion is that the welfare state exists for additional reasons to poverty relief. If all poverty and social exclusion could be eradicated, people would still need to insure themselves and to redistribute over the life cycle. Barr argues the welfare state is here to stay. He also explores ways in which the welfare state can and will adapt to economic and social change and includes solutions.

Of the many functions of the welfare state, two are particularly prominent: the 'Robin Hood' function - the provision of poverty relief, the redistribution of income and wealth, and the reduction of social exclusion; and the 'piggy bank' function - ensuring mechanisms for insurance and for redistribution over the life cycle. The piggy-bank function, unlike the redistributive purpose of the welfare state, has received relatively little attention, and is not widely understood. This book redresses the balance. Nicholas Barr's central contention is that—-contrary to popular opinion—-the welfare state exists for reasons additional to poverty relief. These reasons - encapsulated by the piggy-bank function - arise out of pervasive problems of imperfect information, risk, and uncertainty. Even if all poverty and social exclusion could be eradicated, people would still need to insure themselves and to redistribute over the life cycle. As a result, Barr argues, the welfare state is here to stay, since twenty-first century developments do nothing to undermine these reasons. He also explores ways in which the welfare state can and will adapt to economic and social change, including specific, and sometimes novel, solutions. The analysis in "The Welfare State as Piggy Bank" is international, applying to advanced industrial countries, as well as addressing post-communist countries, and touching upon middle-income developing countries. Barr's approach is contemporary and forward-thinking. His discussion ranges over a number of topics of central relevance to life in the twenty-first century, including genetic screening and its impact on insurance; the convergence of private and social insurance; how to finance long-term care; pension reform in the light of fluid family structures and a mobile workforce; loans for financing investment in human capital; and new ways of involving private finance in tertiary education.

Analysing political discourse in the British press during a time of crisis and austerity, this book examines how the concept of the welfare state has been constructed between 2008 and 2015. At a time when the financial crisis and government policies have put the welfare state under increased pressure, a corpus from four British newspapers from across the political spectrum - the Guardian, Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, and Daily Telegraph - is brought together to investigate the political debate on its evaluation and the ambiguity about its exact definition. Combining two theoretical approaches, Malgorzata Paprota outlines the figurative models and scenarios relevant to this element of the political system. The discourse-historical approach to discourse analysis is used to establish what the welfare state is, tracing the boundaries of the concept and which elements of political reality are explicitly associated with it. Conceptual metaphor theory is then used to explore the figurative conceptualisations of the welfare state. Together, this book shows the discursive construction, and shifting boundaries and metaphors, of the welfare state by the British press and its use in current political debates.

The welfare state has been under attack for decades, but now more than ever there is a need for strong social protection systems—the best tools we have to combat inequality, support social justice, and even improve economic performance. In this book, José Antonio Ocampo and Joseph E. Stiglitz bring together distinguished contributors to examine the global variations of social programs and make the case for a redesigned twenty-first-century welfare state. The Welfare State Revisited takes on major debates about social well-being, considering the merits of universal versus targeted policies; responses to market failures; integrating welfare and economic development; and how welfare states around the world have changed since the neoliberal turn. Contributors offer prescriptions for how to respond to the demands generated by demographic changes, the changing role of the family, new features of labor markets, the challenges of aging societies, and technological change. They consider how strengthening or weakening social protection programs affects inequality, suggesting ways to facilitate the spread of effective welfare states throughout the world, especially in developing countries. Presenting new insights into the functions the welfare state can fulfill and how to design a more efficient and more equitable system, The Welfare State Revisited is essential reading on the most discussed issues in social welfare today.

The fifth edition of this successful textbook discusses the different parts of the welfare system and, in particular, cash benefits, the health service, and education. The text is organized into four parts: Concepts, Cash benefits, Benefits in kind, and Epilogue.

Almost all Americans would be better off if none of the federal welfare-state policies of the last century—including Social Security—had ever been enacted. So argues economist Edgar Browning, and with good reason: In 1900, government played a very small role in the day-to-day activities of American citizens. There was no income tax. No Social Security. No federal welfare programs. No minimum wage laws. No federal involvement in education. Government was small, spending well under 10 percent of our incomes. But now, federal, state, and local governments spend more than 33 percent of our incomes. Why has government grown so much over the past century? The answer, in Browning's devastating critique of the modern welfare state, is simple: the rise of egalitarian ideology—an ideology that has not just harmed the economy but made us all poorer. This book examines all facets of the welfare state in the U.S. and its egalitarian underpinnings. Egalitarians claim, for instance, that markets are unfair and that we must have redistributive policies to produce social justice. This reasoning supposedly justifies the two-thirds of federal spending that simply robs Peter to pay Paul. We are stealing from each other. Browning's research and trenchant analysis show that: -Almost all U.S. citizens are harmed by the welfare state—even many of its apparent beneficiaries. -Welfare-state policies have large hidden costs which all told have reduced the average income of Americans by about 25 percent. -There is much less inequality and poverty than is commonly believed. -Most taxpayers will receive less back from Social Security than they put in. Provocative? Indeed. But such conclusions result from the most thoroughgoing economic analysis of the modern welfare state yet written. Written for a general audience, Stealing from Each Other covers everything informed citizens need to know about inequality, poverty, welfare, Social Security, taxation, and the true costs of government redistributive policies.

Argues that the welfare state is necessary on grounds of efficiency as well as equity, and that its major efficiency role makes it relevant to the whole population. This edition takes into account reforms since 1987 in social security, the NHS and education and the Thatcher/Reagan governments.