Reimagining the Welfare State

[TBF]

by Jennifer Mittelstadt ~ 7-23-15

In this context New Deal nostalgia is a trap. It deludes us about happier times that were not in fact happy for many Americans. While the New Deal offered an unprecedented safety net for many, its holes allowed at least half of the population to fall through.

Since the creation of the free-market Liberty League by the DuPont brothers in 1936, hostile corporate leaders, financiers, economists, and lawmakers have been bent on destroying Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal welfare state.

Wisconsin workers have seen their right to collective bargaining outlined in the New Deal’s Wagner Act gutted, while public pensions, created during the Great Depression to bolster public employment and ensure long-term economic security, have been attacked from Alaska to Florida. Congress also continues to chip away at the state-sponsored provision of basic needs, recently targeting the food stamp program (originally created under FDR) by proposing that all recipients hold jobs, suffer lifetime limits, and receive lower overall benefits.

To many observers, it appears that the New Deal and its safety net have been shredded. Political scientists and others have argued that the perilous individual economic risk that Americans faced before the New Deal has been foisted back on them as its collective protections have withered. With the shocking growth in economic inequality that has arisen alongside cuts to the New Deal, freedom from want — the keystone of Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” — has been chipped away to a pebble. It’s enough to make Americans long for a revival of the politics of the 1930s.

But we should be clear-eyed rather than nostalgic about the demise of the welfare state ....

Much more here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/07/fdr-social-security-gi-bill/

[Cleita]

1. First mistake is using the word welfare.

A true socialist state is one where everything is shared including the work. Those who are able to produce wealth with their labor share it with those who can't contribute as much, like children, the elderly, the disabled and those soon to die. Most tribal societies that are pretty much in the Stone Age even to day as deep in the Amazon or other parts of the world still function this way. the hunters for instance being back the meat to be shared with everyone. The crafters make baskets and pottery, etc. for everyone, even those who aren't able to work as much.

[TBF]

2. Agree -

there's got to be a way all can contribute as best as they can and share resources as needed. I think it is the way we will be headed if we can ever get off this craptastic capitalist merry go round. Great comments.

[socialist_n_TN]

4. I agree. Great comments........

[socialist_n_TN]

3. The New Deal reforms ARE a trap.............

They delude the working class into thinking that capitalism can be accommodated. It can't, at least over historical time lengths. Not that I would advocate getting rid of them at this point- the ones that are left anyway- simply because it's one of the few laws left that actually benefit people.

Anyway, Cleita is right. I would envision a socialist society exactly like she said. You'd work, but the fruits of your work are shared out according, FIRST, according to need.