The Welfare State We're in

by Unknown

• ISBN13: 9781842751619
• ISBN10: 1842751611
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-06-15
• Publisher: Institute Of Economic Affairs

Summary

That is the startling claim at the core of this controversial book. Marshalling an extraordinary range of evidence, fully updated for this paperback edition, James Bartholomew summons into the dock each of the sacred cows of the welfare state and subjects them to searching cross-examination: Do welfare benefits cause unemployment? Does the NHS do what was promised? Has state education given better chances to the less well off? What caused the failure of council housing? Does 'broken parenting' matter? Is a poor state pension better than none? And in conclusion, he asks the key question: if the welfare state is so bad, why don't we get rid of it? Book jacket.

Table of Contents

The welfare state quiz	iv
Some major welfare dates	viii
Author's preface: Growing up with the welfare state	ix
Preface to the paperback edition	xii
1. From Stanley Matthews to Vinnie Jones	1	(24)
Has the character of the British people changed?
What did Orwell make of us in the 1940's?
And what do the number of red cards issued in football matches tell us about attitudes today?
How Willie was treated compared to Vinnie.
2. Social security: Catherine's four dead boys and Frank's bingo blow-out	25	(62)
What did Catherine of Aragon have to do with the origins of the welfare state?
The reason Frank Stent spent his windfall instead of saving.
What The Full Monty tells us about living without a job.
Do welfare benefits cause unemployment?
3. The NHS: like a train crash every day	87	(64)
Healthcare before the NHS.
Did the poor get any?
Aneurin Bevan, rebel with a cause, who created the NHS on Marxist principles.
Does the NHS do what was promised?
In which advanced country do you not want to be ill?
The cost of the NHS in lives lost.
4. Education: eleven years at school and still illiterate	151	(74)
Did the poor get any education before the state took over?
The unlikely man who began the state monopoly and who had nothing like that in mind.
Has state education given better chances to the less well off?
How state education contributes to incivility and crime.
5. Housing: from 'homes fit for heroes' to Rachman and Damilola Taylor	225	(24)
A surprise in Bethnal Green.
'Slums' that worked and tower blocks that didn't.
How rent controls of 1915 led to bully landlords.
What caused the failure of council housing?
6. Parenting: Princess Diana and the habits of the apes	249	(34)
The first and second lone-parenting booms.
Did the state cause both? Does 'broken parenting' matter?
What male hanuman langurs do to babies that are not their own.
The suffering of Diana and the terror of Jade Hart.
7. Pensions: Octavia warned us	283	(26)
What Octavia Hill told Prince Edward about state pensions.
Are state pensions adequate?
Were the politicians who promised better ones fools or liars?
What state benefits do to saving rates.
Is a bad state pension better than none?
8. Tax and growth: Harold Wilson versus John Who?	309	(18)
A plump, tall, bespectacled civil servant runs Hong Kong while Harold Wilson is prime minister of Britain.
Under one, welfare benefits and taxes stay low.
Which country grows faster? Which is richer now?
And which one taxes the poor?
9. The reckoning	327	(16)
The full charge sheet against the welfare state.
The ways in which the welfare state has affected the character of the British people.
How the problems created by the welfare state have led to governments reducing personal freedom.
10. If the welfare state is so bad, why don't we get rid of it?	343	(14)
Laura Touche and Trinity Reynolds both died in hospitals.
One death was a national scandal, the other was hardly mentioned at all.
What this tells us about the difficulty a democracy has in giving up state dependency.
Afterword: Why do people talk more about 'poverty' now that there is less of it?	357	(18)
New for the paperback edition
Little stars of hope for education	361	(7)
The NHS: so did it get better?	368	(7)
Ten things wrong with the welfare state	375	(1)
Ten explanations of the failure	376	(1)
Four reasons why the welfare state is never likely to succeed	377	(1)
Personal reflections on writing The Welfare State We're In	378	(4)
Acknowledgements	382	(2)
Select bibliography	384	(3)
Illustrations	387	(1)
Notes	388	(25)
Index	413