Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

Alternative Market Systems 255day’s most intense debates are on redistributions of incomeand wealth that depart from the rule of quid pro quo. Theredistributions range from free public education throughthose of the welfare state, such as unemployment compensationand family allowances.A colleague flatly declares to me that “the welfare statehas proved it doesn’t work.” Clearly, the programs of thewelfare state are often in trouble. Medical care is an especiallytelling example. Unwilling to consign lowest-incomecitizens to inadequate medical care, many market societiesoffer them subsidized or free care. But then how are demandsfor care to be held down to a feasible level, the priceof care to the consumer no longer high enough to imposethe necessary constraint? The welfare state is also plaguedby government disposition to spend more than planned oranticipated. Welfare expenditures add to historically frequentexcesses of spending, for example, on celebratorypublic works, on the military, on luxury for rulers, or oncorporate welfare. But even taken by themselves welfareprograms are the subject of increasingly severe questionswhen, with the aging of the population in many societies,the number of earners available to support beneficiaries continuesto decline.Nonetheless, these distributions appear to be here tostay. Market societies can choose among various designs ofthe welfare state, from stingy redistributions to careless excesses.A United Nations estimate rates the United Statesas the world’s richest nation (per capita income), yet its welfareprograms leave poverty at its highest level among industrializednations. But abandoning the welfare state isnot a choice. That welfare is judged necessary is a product ofsomething called “civilization.” It is also a strategy throughwhich elites placate a potentially radical mass.