Social infrastructure law in the UK, EU and US
By Ewan McGaughey
What should be the goals of social infrastructure, and the best means to achieve them? Social infrastructure is a new term to describe the welfare state, whose conceptual foundations were laid in Lord Beveridge’s Report, Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942). A good government, said Beveridge, should tackle five evil ‘giants’, namely disease, ignorance, squalor, idleness, and want. These could be overcome with a universal free health service, public education, public housing, full employment, and income insurance (especially old age pensions and unemployment). Today, nearly every country has policies to achieve these goals, but varying success. This chapter focuses on unequal fulfilment of the rights to universal free higher education, to health care, and to social security, full employment with fair pay, and housing, as shaped by central bank monetary policy. It focuses on the UK, EU and US. It contends that public education and health, free at the point of use, with democratic governance, produce the best outcomes: found more in Europe, not the US. It contends that central bank goals that place full employment and inflation on equal levels are superior: found more in the US than in Europe. All systems are far from fulfilling universal human rights.
Source: @papers.ssrn
