28/12/11 Social Reforms Essay To what extent were the Liberal Social Reforms of 1906-1914 in response to the Booth and Rowntree reports? Although there were social changes before hand, between 1906 and 1914, the Liberals launched into one of the biggest social reforms in British political history. Before this, the government’s attitudes to the welfare of its people in the nineteenth century is a phrase called ‘Laissez-fare’ meaning, quite simply, the government didn’t believe it was their duty to interfere with the lives of the people and that the individuals should be responsible for the state of their own lives. However, the findings of The Booth and Rowntree reports were one of the few significant moving factors of the government abandoning of Laissez-fare with shockingly realistic statistics. There were also other key factors such as the ideas of new liberalism, national efficiency, political pragmatism and national security to be taken into consideration of why the government changed its policy.
First the pro side, the first main issue is the fact that the 32 million Americans that don’t have health care will now have access to health care coverage. Many Americans can’t afford health care coverage and this policy lowers the cost so that more Americans will have the opportunity to get the coverage they need. Another pro is that people with preexisting conditions can no longer be denied coverage. Insurance companies have been getting away with denying people the coverage they need because they either get sick or because they have a preexisting condition and this policy puts an end to all of that. Lastly, the amount of personal bankruptcies will be reduced.
The most obvious answer is an increase in taxes and the cutting of extraneous federal spending. Yes, by having universal health care the government will have to budget more strategically and plan another expense into its finances. However, politicians fail to realize that this cost can be overridden by a subtle tax increase. Despite the complaints, most Americans agree that they would be willing to pay more taxes in return for more services such as health care (Universal Access 12). Moreover, we should also keep in mind that Americans today pay some of the lowest taxes in the world, and that developed nations in Europe may spend up to one third of their annual salary in taxes.
The topic that I will be researching is the cause and effect of maintaining a personal budget. I struggle greatly in this department so it is my hope that I learn something as well as other people how it could affect you in many ways if you don’t have and maintain a personal budget. Having a personal budget benefits you in so many ways. There are many pros in having and maintain a personal budget. Although doing this can be somewhat tricky for some people, I believe that it has nothing but great benefits.
If resources are allocated properly an effectively run government crime prevention program is invaluable. The cost-benefit analysis suggests that an economic activity should be expanded as long as the results provide more benefits than the overall costs. In both the U.K. and the U.S. the taxpayers are required to foot the bill for an ever-expanding crime prevention program. However, it is safe to assume that most individuals would rather invest in their own personal safety as well as the safety of their communities. A safer society would also see long-term economic benefits such as overall increase in GDP.
This benefit will be evident in the distant future as the unsustainable growth in federal debt would be reined in. The federal debt is currently more than 70 percent of GDP and is growing at a pace higher than GDP (Page & Reichling, 2012). Without current sequestration or a similar solution, the United States would become insolvent much sooner. According to a nonpartisan economic study, removing fiscal tightening like sequestration would boost output and employment in the short term. Conversely, the United States’ output and employment would suffer and lead to larger increases in interest rates over the long term (Page & Reichling, 2012).
Welfare Provision As world war two drew to a close, the government appointed William Beveridge to investigate national insurance policies. This report, “Social insurance and allied services” or the Beveridge Report as its more commonly known was presented to the government in 1942, Beveridges recommendations focused on tackling the “five giant evils on the road to reconstruction”, these evils consisted of want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness. Each evil had a possible solution aimed at removing it, want offered a social security system where benefits were paid in return for contributions, disease was to be dealt with by a free National Health service for the entire population, ignorance centred on the expansion of education system,
The most profound argument in favor of raising the minimum wage circles around the economic stimulus. Raising the minimum wage would not only help thousands of workers out of government assistance programs, but would also boost spending in the local economy on services and goods. While the strongest argument against raising the minimum wage is the uncertainty of the current job market and how it will affect entry-level and new job positions not opening in the economy. When we start looking at how a change like this would help the vast majority of today’s workers, versus the uncertainty of what may or may not help the few, this poses for a weak argument. Assist with the greater good.
There are still many people who criticize and oppose the raising the minimum wage. Many believe that increasing the minimum wage would maximize the unemployment rate when in reality it would actually create more job opportunities. This is because increasing the minimum wage will require high relative price for unskilled labor which concludes that firms will have a high demand for skilled labor. The increase of minimum wage increases earnings and reduces
This is due to the value of human capital far outweighing the value of infrastructure resources. This means that having increased levels of educated and qualified population will lead to higher levels of growth within an economy. Education has definitely been acknowledged as an important aspect of development with many countries increasing their levels of spending exponentially. Currently 75 million people are not able to access primary education, with more than half of them being made up of women. 98% of people who do not have access to education live in developing or third world nations, this is a serious issue when looking at why poverty and low standards of living are so dominant.