UPDATE: I thought I'd add this link to a past New York Times article about the welfare system here in the US (h/t A Thinking Reed) ... In a Tough Economy, Old Limits on Welfare
Today I saw stories in the news about a plan in the UK from secretary Iain Duncan Smith to force the unemployed to do manual labor at no pay to receive their benefits. The story says this is what is done in the US but that's incorrect .... here some people on welfare may have to work to keep benefits (link), but those receiving unemployment insurance do not. As mentioned in another story, John Dickie, of the Child Poverty Action Group, one of the leading organisations in the campaign, said: “We need welfare reform that treats people with dignity, protects them from poverty and provides genuine support into work that pays. This proposal fails on all counts. These punitive proposals are a distraction from the real barriers people face trying to get back into work – lack of jobs, lack of childcare and discrimination in the labour market. People need real jobs that pay real wages" ....
A few months ago I had a post about the then UK elections and the "big society" idea of David Cameron and Phillip Blond, and proponents of the conservative Catholic "third way" (read about these guys in an America blog post). I said then that I thought it sounded like religicized trickle-down economics. Rowan Williams seems to share some of my concerns ....
Rowan Williams attacks Coalition over Big Society and spending cuts
Dr Rowan Williams said government spending cuts threatened to remove vital services, particularly in rural areas, while church and voluntary groups were already at full stretch. His comments, which followed private talks with the Prime Minister, reinforced his warning that the Big Society agenda must not be simply “an alibi” for public spending cuts .....
Shortly after the election, Dr Williams said he could only give “two and a half cheers” for the Big Society because he was concerned that the plan to give voluntary and charitable organisations a greater role running public services meant the government was “washing its hands” of its responsibilities. Speaking at a Church of England conference on faith in the countryside, Dr Williams suggested that his fears were proving well-founded ....
When the pope was visiting in the UK a couple of months ago, he supported the idea of Cameron's big society - conservative Catholicism and Radical Orthodoxy often dovetail. Call me cynical, but I think supporters of the "big society" are deep-sixing gospel values for their own benefit, at the expense of the needy.
