In the New Deal response to the Great Depression, government assumed greater risk for collective well-being with a set of progressive social welfare policies, a major shift from the minimalist government role until then. Still, the focus remained primarily on shoring up those who had tenuous relationship to market employment. The advent of neo-liberalism 30 years later abandoned collective risk-sharing and shifted much of it back onto the shoulders of individuals. So, the question is whether in the post-pandemic period we can seize the opportunity in Canada, the U.S. and globally to reframe collective risk-sharing in social and economic policy. Can we shape policy frameworks grounded in social solidarity that meet our collective human needs for security and stability rather than again give primacy to market forces? The following piece from Dissent captures the issues well. – Peter Clutterbuck
“What we need is not just a response to the COVID crisis, but a response to the economic insecurities and policy failures that it laid bare. In the 1930s, the New Deal devoted its attention to immediate relief from the ravages of the Great Depression, to recovery from the economic crisis, and, imperfectly, to the challenge of securing shared prosperity in the long run. Not much was to be gained by weathering the crisis and returning to the political economy of 1928. By the same token, rolling back the clock to the pre-COVID economy would be a hollow accomplishment. It is that final piece—the public policies that outlast the immediate crisis and respond to the inequality and insecurity that predated it—that deserve more serious attention.” […]
Click here to view original web page at www.dissentmagazine.org
