How can you worry about welfare dependent citizens and talk about a 40% unemployment from automation and robotics and a guaranteed income. It doesn't compute at least not to my feeble brain.
REH From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Arthur Cordell Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2011 10:56 AM To: [email protected]; 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION' Subject: [Futurework] My presentatio to a luncheon group Fyi Subject: My presentatio to a luncheon group A colleague, an economist who is generally "left leaning", and I joined together to present a picture of the role of the state. This to a casual luncheon of a group which meets monthly. We were asked to stimulate debate and discussion. And we did. We were asked to keep both presentations to under 8 minutes. And we did that as well. I am sending it along since I think it resonates to some degree with the ongoing debate in the US on budgets and deficits. Incidentally my colleague presented a series of charts which showed that the role of the state, as a percent of GDP is not increasing but over the past 20 years or so is actually declining! The discussions around the deficit and budgets is both real and cultural. Can we afford it? And if so what do we want the role of the state to be? ===================== Coming out of the great depression and WW 2 we saw the development of the Welfare State. An increased role of the state in ensuring the well being of citizens. The range of services and benefits is too great to list but health care and pensions are part of the mix. The welfare state brought many benefits and many changes. It seems that it has brought a cultural change. Not so much a "creeping socialism" but rather a case of "mission creep". The state brought a number of programs and benefits and with this it seems that it can do still more. Kids going to school with inadequate breakfasts? Why lets provide breakfasts in the school. Parents want children, want two incomes, want the benefits of a consumer society? Lets provide state funded daycare. People become hooked on drugs? Lets provide drug drop in or needle exchange programmes. Everyone has a list of state activities they value and a list of state activities that are "over the top". The question is has our society developed a condition of entitlement. No problem left behind. Task forces, commissions, studies and finally policies and programmes. The argument goes that this may be all well and good. But have we forgotten the essential balance between rights and responsibilities. Even if the state could afford to do it all Should it do it all? And if it can afford to do it all have citizens come to expect that every "itch must be scratched" by state intervention of one sort or another? In a democracy it can be difficult to re-calibrate the role of the state since elections are often run and won on promises to do more of this and that. Voters select a new service and then the government often has trouble meeting their promises, especially in a time of low growth and low tax revenues. We are at a point where for a variety of reasons the role of the state is being re-considered. Can government be made more efficient? How? What should government do and what should it not do? The role of the state is being looked at critically by the left (military industrial complex) and by the right (the creation of welfare dependent citizens). State spending has come under scrutiny. (below was in the original draft but left out from the actual presentation) How to begin the dialogue. Let's go back for a moment to Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations on getting trees to grow straight Smith said, "If the rod be bent too much one way, says the proverb in order to make it straight you must bend it as much as the other". While Smith was referring to agricultural policies in France hundreds of years ago, the saying may apply to conditions today.
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