The Berlin-based think tank berlinpolis recently released a study on European economic models and social justice. You can download the study in either German or English HERE.
The authors identified three dominant economic models in Europe: the continental model, the Anglo-Saxon/liberal model, and the Nordic model.
They then sifted through statistics pertaining to key social and economic categories: poverty, access to education, employment and family policy.
The Nordic model turns out to be the most just and the most successful. The Nordic countries provide high-quality universal services for all families and needy individuals, and scored higher in all fields than the EU average.
One of the authors of the study – Daniel Dettling – spoke about the centrality of the family policy in the Nordic model in an interview with Telepolis:
Daniel Dettling:
Ohne eine funktionierende Familien- und Bildungspolitik ist das nordische Modell nicht denkbar. Beide sind der Garant des Erfolgs. Die Erwerbstätigkeit von Mann und Frau ist hier nicht nur anerkannt, sondern auch Norm und wird von beiden Geschlechtern unterstützt. Erst die hohe Erwerbsbeteiligung der Frauen schützt diese vor Armut im Fall eines Kindes und verhindert so den Teufelskreis der sozialen Vererbung, unter dem Großbritannien und die USA, aber auch Deutschland, Frankreich, sowie andere EU-Länder leiden. Eine investive, auf gleiche Chancen orientierte Politik verhindert in den skandinavischen Ländern weitgehend Kinder- und Bildungsarmut. Entscheidend ist also nicht so sehr die Höhe der Ausgaben, sondern wie sie investiert werden.
The study only looks at European countries and social justice, but one could easily extend the view to the United States, which represents the most extreme form of the "Anglo-Saxon/liberal model". In the US, the social safety net for families has been systematically dismantled, and the effect on families has been severe. In the most recent issue of Harvard Magazine, Harvard professor Elizabeth Waren writes about the economic decline of the middle class in the US. Two incomes are now required to maintain a middle class existence in America today, whereas only one income was required a generation ago. Furthermore, 75% of the double-income families now goes to fixed monthly expenses: mortgage, insurance, car payments, childcare, etc. So the loss of one income – even for a short period of time – results in financial disaster:
In other words, today’s family has no margin for error. There is no leeway to cut back if one earner’s hours are cut or if the other gets sick. There is no room in the budget if someone needs to take off work to care for a sick child or an elderly parent. Their basic situation is far riskier than that of their parents a generation earlier. The modern American family is walking a high wire without a net.
More about the decline of the American middle class in this excellent series at The American Prospect.
social justice soziale Gerechtigkeit
