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Show | __The SaltLake Tribune OPINION Sunday. April 27, 1997 ‘Welfare State’ Is Demonized by U.S.Politicians 1956. Bythe 1960s, this anti-welfare state course of development was rapidly producing what John Of HowIt Works ety of “private wealth and public squalor.” Even with the attempts by the Great Society of the 1960s to re- Kenneth Galbraith called a soci- verse the trends that Galbraith had noted by reviving the New those who exploited them and produced nothing themselves. Unlike the European welfare used in popular speech for stigmatized and segregated people. Whileit is true that budget cut- waged overcosts and benefits, the ting and, to a lesser extent, privatization are striking at welfarestate systems in general, what is happening in the United States — debate in the United States has encompassed increasingly muffled liberal calls for compassion and increasingly strident and bi- of the 1935 guarantee of federal aid to dependent children and the maintenance of the present sys- state model, where the political debate between labor-based and conservative parties has been that is, the wholesale elimination NEWBRUNSWICK, N.J. — In Deal, welfare continued to be seen as something disconnected partisan conservative denuncia- tem offee for service medicine — omist Joan Robinson, lecturing to from the majority of people, except as an expression of their guilt for the suffering of the poor tions of waste and corruption. In or their rage at the privileges of matized represent attacks on welfare far deeper than those contemplated by conservative European governments. the early 1960s, the English econa U.S. audience on the British welfare state, was asked to comment on the American “welfare the 1980s and ‘90s in the United States, “welfare” becamea stigand segregated noun European and English conser- vatives would havebeen thrilled, for example, with the insurance company based “health-care reform” that was defeated in Congress largely throughtheefforts er, the failure of public media and | public discourse to explore the | Western welfare state model aid the U.S. divergence from it has § seriously deformed political dé | bate and has contributed to the | of the insurance companies them- selves. demonizing of “welfare,” espie- | cially among those who mostseé | themselves as defending the values of the “Western world.” The present bipartisan “‘man- date” to achieve a balanced budget, as opposed to the European Union’s project of keeping deficits to a small percentage of economic output, would berejected Norman Markowitz is a mem-} ber of the history faculty at t by most European decision mak- Rutgers University and a writer | for the History News Service. = ers, including conservatives, as state.” Explaining that the hallmark of such a state was a system of universal health care, which was pre- At about the same time, in a skit on American television, Jonathan Miller, a emberof the British satirical group Beyond the Fringe, playing a daffy English schoolmaster, explained U.S politics to English schoolboys, Boys,” he pontificated, ‘in the U.S. they have two parties, just as we have two parties. They have the Republican party, which is like our Conservative party. And they have the Democratic party, which is like our Conservative party. LEGENDARYL BIB) YTHING FORTHE * sent in all other industrialized “welfare state” countries, she replied that there was no welfare state in the United States. wt ae Europeans Offer Good Example destabilizing and extremist. In a multicultural society suth as the United States, Western | models are not the on! coe that § deserveserious atten’ Howey- |: Taken together, these twostatements, from citizens of the English-speaking countrythat gave us the concept of a welfarestate, continue to capture the divergence of the United States from the rest of the “Western”’ industrialized world after World War Il conceptually andin termsof so- cial welfare First ofall, what we might call the Western welfare state model, established in varying degrees throughout Western Europe and the United Kingdom,provided a variety of subsidized social services to all citizens, not just those whoselack of employment or low incomes made themeligible. In these countries, health care wasavailable as a matter ofright, ere free college education for qualified students, subsidized public housing and transportation PAR BENCH INTEREST! 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The philosophy behind the Western welfare state model, which was advertised after World War II as analternative to Sovietstyle socialism and ‘free market” capitalism, was that education, health care, housing, transporta- tion and child-rearing subsidies would create a more productive labor force, increase purchasing power and provide society that would be equipped with a series of shock absorbers for economic crises and social inequality Whythenhas the conceptof a welfare state in the United States beendefined byliberals as a se- ries of “transfer payments” moti- soc ielges $20Boeons eld Poke ao ey PICNIC The eetest accentpiece for your ae or garden SKU#2951886 FABLE W/BENCHES PIECE PXFIO. SEL 48"table and 4 matching sling arm chairs 68" cedar wood table with two separate benches. 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To answer that question, one *Porcelain coated kettle pened to the Western welfare *Aluminized steellegs Perfect for parties or family get togethers might look briefly at what’ hap- #395 square inches state model, aspects of which 494 40,000 BTU 625 square inches TCA *Heavyduty porcel: #24,000 BTU wKi"*225 square inches total cooking area coated cooking grid *Premium grade ceramic briquettes wereclearly present in the New Deal years, and after World War II whenbothparties forged a consensus around fighting the Cold War Asocial security-style system of national health insurance,” proposed by President Truman in 1948, was denounced by the Ameri Medical Association as creeping socialism” and defeatedby the conservativecoalition in Congress A crazy-quilt Porcelain enameled flavorizer bars *36,000 BTU *3 stainless steel burners *611 square inches TCA #10 yearlimited warranty #36,000 BTU w/10,000 BTU side burner *3 stainless steel burners, #10 year system of insur- ance company-administered health insurance based ontypeof employment and unionization same to take its place. 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