Welfare State and the Middle Class
Welfare?
I’m not on welfare!
I can support myself…I don’t need your help.
Is that what you think?
I need a handout???
So by definition, the Welfare State happens in an industrial capitalist society in which state power was "deliberately used…through politics and administration…to try and modify the play of market forces."?
In other words, these programs are needed… because capitalism isn’t working.
According to the Swedish political scientist Bo Rothstein… in non-universal welfare states…the state is primarily concerned with directing resources to "the people most in need".?This requires tight bureaucratic control in order to determine who is eligible for assistance and who is not. This requires those roadblocks that bureaucrats love…basically to stop us from getting the help we need.
Under universal models…the state distributes welfare programs to all people who fulfill easily established criteria (e.g. having children, receiving medical treatment, etc.) with as little bureaucratic interference as possible.??This system requires higher taxation due to the scale of services provided. This model was constructed in the 1930s and is dominant in Scandinavian countries like Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.?
Canada is different. We have a crap load of social programs…but they’re not universal.?Some people qualify…others don’t.?We like making people go through hoops to get programs…we LOVE our bureaucracy in Canada.?“Please go to line 236 of last year’s income tax return…and tell us your Net Income…”Why do I have to do that??I filed my tax return…you have that information…just match it to my name, address, and social insurance number, and you wouldn’t have to ask!?No wonder they call government workers paper shufflers…
The money spent…the bureaucratic jobs created…remember when I said in a previous episode that a good job is a government job? Decent pay, benefits, security, good working conditions??Now you can understand when I say that Canada is the land of BIG GOVERNMENT!!!
According to the Canadian Encyclopdia, the welfare state in Canada is a multi-billion dollar system of government programs starting in the 1960’s… programs that transfer money and services to Canadians to deal with a bunch of societal needs.
These programs cover poverty, homelessness, unemployment, immigration, aging, illness, workplace injury, disability, and the needs of children, women, gay, lesbian, and transgender people.?
The major welfare state programs include Social Assistance, the Canada Child Tax Benefit, Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement, Employment Insurance, the Canada and Quebec Pension Plan, Workers’ Compensation, public education, medicare, social housing and social services.
Programs that are funded and delivered by our federal, provincial and municipal governments.?
Programs that are paid for with our tax dollars…in one way or another.??????
My premise has always been… that the beginning of the end of the Middle Class started in the early 1980’s. This is the time when food banks, food programs, soup kitchens, and the re-emergence of shelters for homeless people became a major part of the Canadian welfare state.
What happened in the early 1980’s was an increase in the cost of housing in major cities… the growth of unemployment… the failure of both minimum wages and social assistance payments to keep up with the cost of housing… and the failure of governments to provide care facilities for people with persistent mental illness .
Take a look around…the homeless are everywhere…they’re on the streets of major Canadian cities and in smaller towns to this day.?When the private sector doesn’t help…when governments at all levels don’t help as much as they should…then we’ve come to rely on charities to fill the gap.?Can you imagine our society if we didn’t have charities…if we didn’t have volunteers…it’s scary just thinking about it.
Social programs today are designed to deal with unemployment as a "contingency,"… an unusual occurrence…and not as the regular feature of economic and social life that it has become. This fact will no doubt continue to exert considerable pressure on future welfare state policy.?How long will the effects of Covid-19 really last????How long will we need government support??It will likely be years…???????
Let’s look at the pre-pandemic income and social support system in British Columbia. It’s made up of 120 provincial programs scattered across 12 ministries through 23 different points of access. Additionally, the federal government provides 72 programs through eight different departments or agencies and 12 different points of access. In other words…there are almost 200 income and social support programs that effect our lives!!!
…and with all these programs…all this big government…then the pandemic hits and now we’re in trouble.
Consider the federal government programs that popped up overnight…those programs that started in March 2020 when Covid 19 started to become a real thing.?We’re not even talking about provincial programs….just federal.???
For individuals we have:
· tinkering to the?Employment Insurance (EI) program?
· the?Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) and it’s predecessor CERB…or Canada Emergency Response Benefit.
For businesses in general we have:
For specific industries, the Canada Economic Response Plan helps out
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·?Tourism
·?Energy
…and for specific organizations that help people there is money for
·?Seniors
In my last article, I discussed the potential benefits of a Universal Basic Income. Little to no bureaucracy…just give $2000/month to every citizen over 18…just give us the cash…we can figure out how to spend it!?And just think of how many welfare state programs might disappear!
Some people would pay down debt…others might invest in further education…some might buy better food…some people might afford a roof over the heads.?Some people might get out of the GIG economy and not have to work 2 or 3 part time jobs…maybe they can start their own business.?But however we decide to spend the money…it becomes our choice!?
We would be FREE to decide…whereas now we’re not free at all.
I read a story the other day that sums up the Middle Class struggle. Let me know if you can relate.
Rich are rich. They can afford to lose a little. Poor are poor…they are used to surviving with the little they get. Middle class? It’s in the middle. They spend their life in the struggle between their unending ambition to become rich, and their relentless fear of becoming poor.
It’s a self-invited agony.
UBI could eliminate much of our poverty in Canada, and bolster the incomes of working class people to put them back into some semblance of a middle class. Where we wouldn’t have to worry so much…to get stressed out…to feel like we’re in a never-ending struggle.
But I’ve gotta laugh.?The Province of British Columbia just issued a December 28, 2020?Final Report of the Expert Panel on Basic Income.
This report squashes the idea of Universal Basic Income. Instead the people that wrote the report make 65 recommendations on tinkering with existing programs… or adding new ones.?Just add more layers of bureaucracy…now there’s the answer!?Silly people…
In Canada we are used to these programs…we like them…we expect them…we revere them.?
The States are a different story. A lot of Americans despise the Welfare State…despise what they perceive as Socialism. After all…this is the land of the free…chase that American Dream…sink or swim without the government getting involved.?Revolt!?Resurrection!?Storm the Capitol!?
I have American cousins asking how to become Canadian citizens.?NO WONDER!
The United States was the only industrialized country that went into the Great Depression of the 1930s with no social insurance policies in place. In 1935 Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal finally instituted significant social insurance policies.??
By 2013, the U.S. remained the only major industrial state without a uniform national sickness program….no guaranteed maternity leave…and no guaranteed vacation time.?They now have ObamaCare…but the Republicans under Trump were just trying to get rid of it.
Today…the Progressives in the Democratic Party are talking about a Green New Deal. It’s a piece of legislation that’s made the sponsor …Congress Woman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez…or A.O.C.?become a household name.?It is also part of the campaign platform of recent Democratic Party candidate Bernie Sanders.?I know my kids love them both!?
The Green New Deal is a 14 page resolution, released on February 7, 2019. The Deal pushes for transitioning the United States to use 100% renewable, zero-emission energy sources, including investment into electric cars and high-speed rail systems.
Besides increasing state-sponsored jobs, this Green New Deal is also aimed to address poverty by targeting improvements in the "frontline and vulnerable communities" which include the poor and disadvantaged people. To gain additional support, the resolution includes calls for universal health care…over and above what ObamaCare covers…increased minimum wages, and preventing monopolies.
Yup…AOC and Bernie Sanders are considered the Radical Left.??What Americans think is radical Socialism, Canadians think is normal every day life.
To give you an idea of how the Republicans feelWW about the Green New Deal, there was a Fox Business interview on August 13, 2020. Then President Donald Trump voiced his opposition, declaring that adopting the Green New Deal would result in demolishing the Empire State Building and abolishing all animals.?
And this guy was the President…still can’t believe it…and he just had 74 million people vote for his party!
AOC for President!?Oh wait…she can’t.?You have to be 35 years old…and she’s only 31…and Bernie Sanders is 79 and will never run again…
God Bless America, as their Middle Class Struggle may turn into a Working Class War!