In talk.origins maff <maff91@yahoo.com> wrote:

Privatising peace of mind
http://www.economist.com/surveys/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=173079

Oct 22nd 1998

From The Economist print edition

Can the private sector help resolve the welfare state's troubles?
Yes, but not all of them, says Matthew Bishop

WILL I have enough to live on when I retire? Will I get proper health
care when I am sick, especially in old age? If I lose my job or become
unable to work, will I end up in poverty or dependent on charity? These
are big questions for everyone, and across the world they are being
asked with growing apprehension.

Ever since 1889, when Otto von Bismarck, Prussia's "Iron
Chancellor", introduced the first state pension, people have
increasingly looked to government to provide retirement income, health
care and protection against poverty-which together are broadly called
"social insurance". Britain got its first state pension in 1908,
and its state-run National Health Service in 1948. America's Social
Security (the name for its state pension) was a product of the New Deal
in the 1930s.

Yeah. Folks who don't know their history keep pointing to
that.

In the Middle Ages it was common in western Europe for those 8
who served the crown or a noble to be eventually retired with
a pension for life. Monks and clergy were treated the same way
by the Church. The peasantry had a rougher time of it but if
one did not have a family capable of supporting you, your village
often did it.

You see, the notion was that you gave during your working lifetime
and your grateful "employeers" gave back when you retired.

This is why a Prussian landholder of the old school, a man who
owned many estates with "retired" workers on them, felt it
important in the modern world to extend the notion of a pension
to those who built Germany. Don't forget, the unified German
nation was quite new back then.

Only in America are such things regarded as "poaching off the
public purse". The message sent is that you, in your active
life, helped make America great, you built the nation, and
now in your old age you can crawl into a hole and die.

By the way, free medical care for those who could not afford
to pay a doctor was also common in the Middle Ages. Something
about Christ and the poor and sick had something to do with
it but we aren't *that* kind of Christian in the US.

One nation, under Mamon, united....

Otto von Bismarck
http://news.google.com/news?q=Otto%20von%20Bismarck&num=100&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&sa=N&tab=gn

http://www.google.com/search?q=Otto+von+Bismarck&num=100&hl=en&lr=&tab=nw&ie=UTF-8&sa=N

http://www.google.com/search?q=Otto+von+Bismarck&btnG=Search+Directory&hl=en&cat=gwd%2FTop

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=Otto%20von%20Bismarck&num=100&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&sa=N&scoring=d&tab=wg

----- Paul J. Gans

maff wrote:

Privatising peace of mind
http://www.economist.com/surveys/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=173079

Oct 22nd 1998

From The Economist print edition

Can the private sector help resolve the welfare state's troubles?
Yes, but not all of them, says Matthew Bishop

WILL I have enough to live on when I retire? Will I get proper health
care when I am sick, especially in old age? If I lose my job or become
unable to work, will I end up in poverty or dependent on charity? These
are big questions for everyone, and across the world they are being
asked with growing apprehension.

Ever since 1889, when Otto von Bismarck, Prussia's "Iron
Chancellor", introduced the first state pension, people have
increasingly looked to government to provide retirement income, health
care and protection against poverty-which together are broadly called
"social insurance". Britain got its first state pension in 1908,
and its state-run National Health Service in 1948. America's Social
Security (the name for its state pension) was a product of the New Deal
in the 1930s.

Otto von Bismarck
http://news.google.com/news?q=Otto%20von%20Bismarck&num=100&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&sa=N&tab=gn

http://www.google.com/search?q=Otto+von+Bismarck&num=100&hl=en&lr=&tab=nw&ie=UTF-8&sa=N

http://www.google.com/search?q=Otto+von+Bismarck&btnG=Search+Directory&hl=en&cat=gwd%2FTop

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=Otto%20von%20Bismarck&num=100&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&sa=N&scoring=d&tab=wg

well, in German history class I heard a slightly different story.
Around 1885 was the times when Bismarck fought the Socialdemocratic
Party, which gained influence among the workers and some intellectuals,
even among some left liberals. He saw this as a threat, and had a law
passed to make the SPD illegal.
But it didn't help, the SPD still increased their share of the votes in
the elections, so Bismarck tried to drive a wedge between the SPD and
the workers by introducing mandatory social insurance.
Several big companies already had social insurance systems, one of the
most important was Krupp, and the German insurance system was modeled
after Krupp's systems.
And here you see the idea behind it in those days: If you lived in Essen
you were born in the Krupp hospital, lived in one of the the Krupp
housing complexes, worked in one of the Krupp factories, served in the
Prussian army using Krupp weapons, worked again (if you were lucky) in
the Krupp factory, and died in the Krupp hospital (The rumor that there
was a Krupp cemetary cannot be confimed).
It all was a rather paternalistic idea in the beginning, but then it
developed into an important part of what we call the "social market
economy" in Germany, meaning a market driven economy with strong social
ties and regulations, in contrast to the "pure market economy", which in
Germany obviously failed in the 20s and 30s of the last century.
And next Sunday we have a federal election in Germany, and we may see
the end of the "social market economy" model, if the Christian Democrats
take over. They want to make "reforms" which will bring us really
forward, to the times before 1889.