4 - 2003

Reforming the welfare state

Editorial

The German state is having to make deep spending cuts in the area of social welfare. Many of the free services it provides will disappear, in part or entirely, such as child guidance, advice for debtors, battered women’s shelters, aid to the homeless, addicts and mentally ill, or for work in the most socially needy areas. Even people with legal rights to social services must expect significant reductions, such as those with state health and nursing care insurance, those on social welfare payments, and pensioners.

Numerous commissions, some of them appointed by the government, have come up with the most varied proposals, which are supposed to help prevent the breakdown of the social welfare system. In this issue of Ecumenical Dialogue, only one area will be presented as an example: the measures adopted in September 2003 for the recovery of the health care system.
Parties and people are largely in agreement that the overblown welfare state must be slimmed down. But all those whose state services are to be reduced or cut off are raising an outcry and demanding that cuts be made for other groups of persons and in other areas.

The reasons why a rich nation like Germany is sinking into public poverty are being fiercely disputed, and not only by politicians. It is clear to all those involved that there is a bundle of mutually reinforcing reasons for the present wretched situation: large public debts, a weak economy, high unemployment and unfavourable demographic factors. Compared with other industrial nations, German workers have the highest wages and the fewest working days per year. Germans have become accustomed to their government insuring them against almost all of life’s crises. A further reason for the dearth of funds for state and local authorities is the fact that large corporations and extremely wealthy persons are quite happy to benefit from public services, but to a large extent can avoid paying taxes.
Discussions in the churches give priority to social justice. If public services are to be cut, it should not be done at the expense of those least able to defend themselves. A vision of an economy for the sake of life is gradually being developed. Calls are growing louder for a programme to combat wealth.