Welfare state
by, Naseer Ahmed
A democratic welfare state is wonderful because without a welfare state either it is journey to fascism or fascism itself. That is what our recent history has taught us.We could see this development in so many places like Turkey, Israel and India.
In fact, this development is in various stages in so many advanced democracies of the world like the United States, France and Holland.
A journey to fascism might look pleasant while economy is working at the expense of individual and political freedoms but all kind of selfish and disconnected drives create so many victims. It just takes a few fiery speeches about cultural purity and the seeds of minority persecution and an overwhelming state begin to grow.
Things become quite problematic when economy begins to fail and selfishness starts to show its true colors and its true colors are unpleasant and horrible. Besides, it is tough to create and innovate in the absence of individual and political freedoms when economy fails.
In fact whatever worthy and wonderful created during such a failed economy phase is a call for help and assistance. When that call is not answered, history informs us that millions of people end up in concentration camps and gulags. And the choice between a concentration camp and a gulag is not a real choice.
In addition any type of totalitarian government is a horrible government in spite of ideologues debating over such technicalities. ‘Our guy is kinder than your guy; your guy starved 60 million people to death while our guy managed to kill only 59 millions’. You know this kind of discussion is useless discussion.
On the other hand a democratic welfare state acknowledges the assistance and support realities of human existence. Which phase of our life does not need assistance and support from other people? This self made stuff is fairy tale stuff which most of us like because ingratitude is another important reality of our existence.
Basically, we all need help and assistance. Even the most selfish endeavors like a board of governors or a central committee cannot work without cooperation.
It would be better to turn those needs and wants into rights and contracts a society has to ensure for its members like basic universal income, universal care, universal education and other such universals.
It has benefits. The more important benefit is that it gives every individual a better chance at life. That means social mobility.
The other day I was looking at some graphs where you find only members of ethnic minorities in the top jobs in the United Kingdom.
There are only 2% representation of women and ethnic minorities in top 100 FTSE companies in the United Kingdom.
There is no non police chief constable from the ethnic minorities in the UK.
I have been following this kind of graphs since our ‘Tony and the Wicked Witch (The Sun newspaper depiction of Mr. Tony Blair and Mrs. Tony Blair.Mrs Blair liked to champion the causes of the disadvantaged which the Sun disapproved).
But Tony Blair liked a lot by the Sun newspaper (a tabloid that usually rallies the white working people to the causes of the wealthiest while promoting hatred against ethnic minorities) was quite sweet on public private partnership thing which in fact is a euphemism for all kind of irrational privatization.
The things worked in a way that those graphs keep getting lovelier and the facts about the social mobility kept getting uglier. According to one estimate the 85 richest people have as much as the entire poor population of the world. That is not the real promise of technology. It is a bit like Tortoise formation of Romans or Mongol bow. And we thought we have become a bit mature since.
But the welfare state could make our knowledge and skills working in a positive way. It united a warring Europe and gave its population the best living standards in the world. We could find the countries like United Kingdom, Norway and Netherlands in the World Economic Forum list of the countries with the best living standards in the world. That is an achievement of the welfare state.
The second important benefit is about having millions of compassionate citizens. In the Western Europe, that human resource has helped a lot in sorting out conflicts and wars for a long time.
Since they have started to dismantle welfare state, promote greed and fear and cheap theater, there are strife and hatred growing in Europe and elsewhere. And at times, it looks like it is going to make things fall apart once again. It is because an economy based upon greed and fear ultimately leads to hatred when it fails.
The third benefit is that a welfare state helps to deal with economic downturns better by reducing the possibilities of civil wars and keeping the dangerous ideologies in check. A better life and a safety net work keep extremism in check.
For the last thirty years, the corporations are bombarding people with greed, fear and insecurity but still there are plenty of people around who try to defend whatever is left of welfare state and democracy. In addition in some places like the United Kingdom, lots of people have started to vote for a return of welfare state.
Since, they have begun dismantling those welfare states, all we have seen is rise of dangerous ideologies like Islamism, racism and fascism in Europe. During the welfare state, we went through stagflation, a combination of stagnation and inflation. A problem that could have been sorted without dismantling the welfare state but during its perpetual dismantling we went through a great recession, lots of wars, inequality and a kind mental block where we do not have any solutions of our problem.
If we return to a democratic welfare state we might be able to free ourselves from this mental block and start solving problems. In the end, there is society and an individual needs other people. And a thinking and compassionate citizen could protect human rights better than all kind of brainwashed extremists.
