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En provenance du cours de Columbia University

What Is the Welfare State? A Cross-National Comparison

2 notes

Columbia University

What Is the Welfare State? A Cross-National Comparison

2 notes

Cours 1 sur 5 dans Specialization Social Policy for Social Services & Health Practitioners

In all nations, social policy is a very large public investment. Course 1 will explore the size, structure, and outcomes of U.S. social policy and compare this policy to those of similar developed countries. The course will also probe the values this policy represents and the values debate regarding about how big our welfare state should be— in other words, how much of our education, housing, health, income support, and social services the government should supply and how much individuals should supply for themselves. This course addresses issues of power, oppression, and white supremacy. The course is part of a sequence in social policy that has an HONORS TRACK. This track will prepare the learner for masters-level work in policy, which involves reading the literature, writing concise summaries and probing critiques. Over the sequence the learner will develop a policy analysis that will create a foundation for professional policy analyst assignments.

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Social Policy Structure

In this module, you will explore the domains of the US welfare state and differentiate the floor, platform and safety net components

Social Services5:29

Platforms and Floors by Professor Garfinkel2:39

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John Robertson
Policy Lecturer
School of Social Work, Columbia University in New York City

So, I saved the housing domain until after Professor Garfinkel's session on

platform floors and safety nets because I thought it would

provide a useful illustration of this concept.

So, now we're going to talk about the ways

in which the social service system provides housing.

Now, lots of housing is provided outside the social service system.

People simply take money from their paychecks and pay brand,

and people use their money and they buy housing.

So, not all housing is related to social welfare,

but many parts of housing are related to social welfare.

So, let me talk about the parts that are related to social welfare.

So, we have the building codes.

So, building codes mean that buildings have safety,

that they're not going to collapse,

that they have appropriate ventilation,

that they're made out of materials that won't sicken you,

that they have fire exits, and so forth.

And these we will call a floor program because they're provided to everyone.

All houses in the United States are subject to

building home regulations to make sure that the houses are safe.

But, there's another part of this,

which is the zoning regulations.

And zoning says that on this land,

you can only build this kind of a house,

it has to have this many square feet,

it has to be on this pin a lot.

And often the zoning programs are

platform programs because they benefit people who have some money,

and they make sure that their neighborhoods look like

the kind of neighborhoods they want to live in.

So, there's an argument in the United States right now,

that a reason we have a shortage of housing,

and housing is so expensive,

is because of these complex zoning structures.

So, home ownership is another big part of our housing program.

So, we have for a long time encouraged people to buy their homes.

I talked about this earlier as part of the pension system,

and this too is a platform program because you have to have a certain amount of income,

a certain level of stability,

a certain kind of down payment to purchase a home.

So, there are many people in the society who will never be able to purchase a home.

Home ownership is supported by government,

and with fairly major dollars,

it's one of the more expensive social welfare programs in tax expenditures by

allowing homeowners to deduct the mortgage interest payments they make,

which brings down the cost of the mortgage quite a lot.

So, this is a significant piece of

investment that federal government makes in social welfare.

We provide housing for returning veterans,

and then we have an entire division of government

which assures that there will be mortgages,

and then the mortgage was will be guaranteed at

a relatively inexpensive price in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

So, all of these housing programs are platform programs.

Then, we have a number of safety net housing programs,

public housing where you have to demonstrate that your income is below a certain amount,

section 8 programs where to get a voucher,

your income has to be below a certain amount.

We have housing vouchers and subsidized housing for seniors,

subsidized housing for people with various sorts of disabilities.

And so this is the safety net part of the housing system.

So, as Professor Garfinkel was saying,

this notion of safety net floors and

platforms is kind of written into the American social welfare system,

and we do spend a lot of our social welfare dollars on

platform programs that benefit people who

are relatively established and have reasonable incomes..

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