Are Beveridge’s five evils back?
Want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness: are Beveridge’s five evils back?It’s 75 years since the Beveridge report paved the way for the welfare state, and the UK is again plagued by the problems he aimed to eradicate – from insecure jobs to malnutrition
This November marks the 75th anniversary of the Beveridge report – the founding document of the modern welfare state and the answer to the question: what would Clement Attlee do? The Attlee government’s radical agenda, after all, basically enacted every recommendation made by eccentric patrician liberal reformer Sir William Beveridge, who exceeded his simple brief – to survey the country’s social insurance programmes – with a wide range of suggestions aimed at eradicating what he called the five “giant evils”: want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness. Click to expand... Interesting article from the GuardianWant, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness: are Beveridge’s five evils back?
If the 5 evils are back (did they ever go away?) does that mean that after 75 years and Government spending growing in real terms and as a percentage of GDP, Beveridge has failed - or is the Guardian just over egging the pudding again? I would say Ignorance and Squalor are on the rise and Idleness is inevitable with the automation revolution.Disease is on the back foot and Want is kinda subjective isn't it?I mean I want that £700 LEGO Millennium Falcon. You have my permission to buy it data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
(No, I'm not funding it, so don't ask data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7) Just wait for 3D printers to come of age, then you can print as many Millennium Falcons as you want. Might be quicker to save up data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Pages:
[1]