Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Welfare State

I seldom if ever see South Africa listed among welfare states, yet apparently it is the biggest welfare state in the world, according to its dependency ratio. This is said to be "unsustainable". I wrote to a British academic today that we would seem to have a four-tier system here: those who take care of their own welfare through their own means, a tottering state welfare system, those who are rescued in various ways through very public charitable initiatives, and lastly those who merely subsist or even die for want, in one way or another. I have experienced such deaths in the course of my ministry (typically in the area of health). OBSERVATION: "Welfare" does however have varying meanings.

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