Welfare futures: Balancing progress with sustainability

摘要

Social progress can be defined by the capacity to improve welfare and wellbeing. The expansion of life expectancy and quality of life, the reduction of poverty and social inequality, the attainment of higher levels of life satisfaction at old age as well as access to complete education suggest that judging on the attainment of individual capabilities [1], progress is possible, and that it can be enhanced by welfare programs and policy action. The key question is, however, how we can know whether welfare programs improve wellbeing. The meaning of wellbeing is a constructed one. Not surprisingly, the needs of individuals evolve together with economic and social development, and therefore any measure of welfare, and more generally progress, seems to expand accordingly. Some studies show that there is a very low association between economic growth and welfare expenditure [2], and other studies question that economic growth alone correlates with social progress proxies such as human height. So the question of whether welfare programs do result in the improvement of welfare is still unresolved and places the discipline of social policy at the top of the research agenda, especially for futures scholars. There have been many institutional attempts to improve human welfare in western societies throughout history, and a major one was the introduction of the welfare state in the mid-20th century. The welfare state relies on the view that it is more efficient for individuals to collectively insure against social risks. Indeed, it is well known that individuals cannot predict the future too well, hold myopic preferences in allocating resources and have difficulties in predicting needs at old age [3]. Therefore, welfare programs put in place by governments are generally designed to help individuals to attain general welfare goals.