Radical reforms are required to forge a society that will work for all
By The Editorial Board
Financial Times, April 3, 2020
Beyond defeating the disease, the great test all countries will soon face is whether current feelings of common purpose will shape society after the crisis. As western leaders learnt in the Great Depression, and after the second world war, to demand collective sacrifice you must offer a social contract that benefits everyone.
Radical reforms — reversing the prevailing policy direction of the last four decades — will need to be put on the table. Governments will have to accept a more active role in the economy. They must see public services as investments rather than liabilities, and look for ways to make labour markets less insecure. Redistribution will again be on the agenda; the privileges of the elderly and wealthy in question. Policies until recently considered eccentric, such as basic income and wealth taxes, will have to be in the mix.
Comment:
By Don McCanne, M.D.
It has become obvious to many of us that the government must play a greater role in establishing policies that allow us to advance a social contract that benefits everyone. The significance of today’s Quote of the Day is that it comes from the editorial board of The Financial Times, a publication that supports economic liberalism — a political and economic philosophy based on strong support for a market economy and private property in the means of production.
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