Dear Editor,
GHK Lall expressed misgivings in SN May 24th over my pitch for Guyana to use its oil wealth to create a social welfare state on par with such countries as Denmark and Sweden (see letter in KN 16th and SN 17th May). His misgivings, however, reran the old complaint—with its classist overtones—against social provision. He stated that, despite his sympathy for the poor, the generosity of the state must be restricted lest it fostered laziness and lifelong dependency. Therefore, he would oppose, for example, any permanency of President Biden’s Child Tax Credit—a scheme aimed at ending child poverty in the US. In rebuttal, let me (re)emphasize as follows.
Firstly, empirical evidence shows that apathy and dependency among welfare recipients can be effectively countered by good program design, administrative competence, and political will. Unemployment benefits, for instance, could be time-limited or tied to job hunting. Cash transfers could be conditional on behaviors such as attendance at retraining programs. Benefits could be non-cash, such as free school meals. In short, recipients can still be motivated to seek salaried work.
Second, many Guyanese are in fact, to quote Lall, “interested enough to rise and earn by proverbial sweat”. The problem is their wages are not enough to meet their basic needs, let alone to give them a decent life. These working poor—comprising mostly women and youths—are employed, for example, in the private security sector, in entry-level and low-skilled government positions, in the retail sector, and in the self-employed crafts. A social welfare state must lift the employed out of hardship.
Third, Lall joins those who view women staying at home on welfare as a social problem. As the intense political and ideological debate in the US over the Biden Child Tax Credit has revealed, there are two sides to this. On one side (the old one), US conservatives emphasize work and hold that the child tax would demotivate women to seek jobs and foster irresponsible lifestyles. On the flipside, US progressives emphasize individual choice and the family and contend that society must recognize women as mothers and care-givers. A large body of social science research, they argue, shows that stay-home moms deliver more successful outcomes for their children. Modern social welfare states are now more likely to give women the option to be home keepers and care-givers for their children and/or their elderly parents and grandparents.
The fourth rebuttal requires a recast of our mindset on social welfare, as one author aptly puts it, “from paupers receiving doles to citizens claiming rights”. Like political rights, the social and economic rights of citizens are constitutionally guaranteed to all—irrespective of our value judgements on various groups or classes in society.
Lastly, social welfare is often mistakenly seen only as poverty alleviation and therefore spurs reactions such as Lall’s. This problem has been long recognized. When the term was first coined in the 1940s, William Beveridge, regarded as the father of the British welfare state, objected that the phrase implied a “Santa Claus state” that was at odds with his stress on the importance of worker contributions and personal responsibility. In Guyana, without question, poverty eradication must be a priority goal of social welfare. It is shameful, for instance, that many of our children are malnourished. To respond, the state must guarantee a minimum livable household income.
But a social welfare society has several other key goals. One is to ensure all Guyanese (regardless of income) have access to quality services such as in health, education, labour exchange, recreation, justice, security, and creative pursuits. Two is to ensure adequate social provision for society’s inherently vulnerable: children, the elderly, the disabled, and the mentally ill. Three—and undervalued as a goal—is to use the welfare system as a tool of economic development. Two examples illustrate this. Cash transfers to rural households can boost demand for produce from local farms. Adequate day-care facilities can free women to join the workforce.
Creating a social welfare state in Guyana requires a new governmentality—that is, a style of social and economic administration based on a deep respect for, and the full activation of, all our rights of citizens.
Sincerely,
Sherwood Lowe