Probably from the emergence of humans, poverty and wealth have already existed, so almost all civilizations pursue fairness as one of the core values.(Internet)
Probably from the emergence of humans, poverty and wealth have already existed, so almost all civilizations pursue fairness as one of the core values.Unemployment will always exist, but the inequality that people see today is the product of the occurrence, development and diffusion of capitalism, especially the industrial revolution in modern times.In the long history of modern times, because of the backward technology level, the lives of almost all people in all countries only maintained the level of survival, which is a general poverty.
On the one hand, the modern industrial revolution has greatly promoted the improvement of labor productivity, and on the other hand, it has also accelerated unfairness and social differentiation.After entering the 20th century, with the acceleration of the globalization process, the economic growth rate of various countries is faster, and at the same time, almost all countries have increasing internal income differences, and society is becoming more and more differentiated.This has caused today's population to expand to the situation of various countries, and the more developed countries and society, the more popular populism.
There is no absolutely equal society, but if a society is too differentiated, this society will lose a stable foundation, and social conflicts and even civil war will be inevitable.The modern welfare system since the West is undoubtedly a great invention of human beings to deal with extreme social unfairness.Since modern times, the stability of society is closely related to the emergence, development and maintenance of the welfare system; and the stability of society has provided a favorable environment for the normal operation of capitalism.
If the welfare system is understood as socialism, socialism and capitalism are actually two sides of a coin. Capitalism creates wealth, and socialism distributes wealth.In fact, it is difficult for people to describe some typical welfare society with capitalism or socialism.
Various backgrounds generated by the welfare system
In Europe and the United States, the production of the welfare system has different backgrounds and paths, including liberal patterns (such as Britain, the United States), conservative mode (such as Germany, Italy), and social democratic models (such as Nordic countries).But no matter what models, they are similar. All models emphasize the role of the government, but the role of the government in terms of income re -distribution is different.No matter what development pathway, it revolves around the relationship between the three, that is, capitalism + democracy + benefits.Welfare is the product of capitalism and is also produced to save capitalism.In some countries, the generation of welfare system has nothing to do with democracy, because when the welfare system is generated, those countries have no democracy.
The world's first social security system (core of welfare countries) was born in Germany in the Bismarck era.The social security system is the product of German conservatism. Because Bismarck sees the foundation of capitalism to shake the society, if the government stands for stand by, society will be turbulent, and capital will be difficult to act.Another factor that contributes to the welfare system is ideological.
After the modern enlightenment, the European ideological community gradually developed various human rights concepts, and some political and economic elites took the responsibility of sympathizing with society and empowering society as an elite.Of course, the elites also enjoy political power that cannot be the same as ordinary people.Before the generation of contemporary democracy, only a few (ie, elite) enjoyed political rights.
The development of democracy does help the accelerated development of the welfare system.In the world, one person and one -vote for democracy that people have experienced today can be said to be accelerated after World War II, and it was generally realized in the 1970s.From the perspective of experience, the welfare system of most countries has also been arisen and developed during this time.
But it is incredible that one person and one vote system gives each citizen to each citizen, and people get different degrees of benefits, but this does not make society more fair.In recent decades, especially after the 1990s, in the world, the poor and the rich, the rich, have become a universal phenomenon.In other words, the full realization of political rights has not given people the realization of economic rights.
Recently, a sensational news appeared in the West, saying that 18 super rich in the United States, including the investor Soros and the co -founder of Facebook Chris Hughes, issued a joint letter to the US presidential candidates in 2020.It is said that the U.S. government has morality and economic responsibility to levy taxes to the rich to cope with the problems of global warming, improving economic, and medical care, alleviate social problems, maintain stability, and consolidate democracy.
Indeed, the U.S. Democratic Party campaign has begun, and candidates have shown the trend of socialism to varying degrees, so that some people see this as the beginning of the American socialist movement.Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren proposed a wealthy tax plan that claimed to levy a 2 % tax of more than $ 50 million in assets and levied an additional 1 % of more than 1 billion US dollars.She believes that this can increase US $ 2.75 trillion in 10 years.
However, the rich tax is not new.The idea of wealth tax is more common in Europe, but this idea has been questioned from the beginning, because the rich is the most capable group in society, especially the tax avoidance ability of this group.Fifteen member states of Economic Cooperation and Development Established were the rich taxes as early as 1995, but so far only four small countries such as Switzerland, Belgium, Norway, and Spain have implemented this system. France, Sweden and Germany have been canceled due to difficulties.
Real concern of the rich
In the United States, although there are still people even think that the tax tax is not in line with the constitution, more and more Americans have begun to support this tax.The polls published by Hillmdash; Harrisx in February this year showed that 74 % of American interviewees supported this tax, including 65 % of Republicans.
The ideas and support of the people's politicians levy rich taxes are all reactions to the reality of American society today: while the society has accumulated a huge amount of wealth, society is becoming more and more differentiated, middle -class shrinking, populist rise, and society present.Unstable trend.
According to the US Federal Reserve's US wealth distribution data published on June 21st, the asset distribution of Americans from the third quarter of 1989 to the first quarter of this year shows that in the past 30 years, the most richest population in the United States in the past 30 years has increasedIt was $ 272 trillion, reaching 3.19 trillion, an increase of 4.8 times; half of the half of the assets rose from the original US $ 750 billion to about 1.3 trillion US dollars, only 78 %.If the inflation rate is calculated, the wealth at the bottom has been shrinking.According to statistics from the National Institute of Economics of the United States, the richest 0.1 % of the United States has one -fifth of the wealth of the country, equivalent to 90 % of all the wealth.
The rise of populism worldwide, the differences between the rich and the poor and the social differentiation are undoubtedly one of the most important reasons.As some people have pointed out, the rich that the rich claims to levy the rich taxes may not be because this group of conscience suddenly discovered that it has a noble sense of morality. It is more likely that this group is afraid of the rise of populism to damage Western democracy, which affects or even evenDestroy their own interests.
The rich can show their moral attitude high -profile to reduce the political pressure faced by the rich group.To realize that although the democratic system has indeed enhanced social welfare, it is mainly used to protect the interests of the rich, otherwise it is difficult to explain that it is more and more democratic in politics, but the economic phenomenon is increasingly democratic.
Regardless of the motivation of the rich group, this group is too small and rich after all, and taxation to this group can alleviate people (The emotions of the poor, but from the perspective of experience, the rich tax cannot solve any problems.When welfare becomes a kind of inherent right, it is difficult for the welfare system to continue.If it is right, if you do not realize this right, you will work hard to achieve it. Those who do not have enough rights will strive to strive for more rights. It is necessary to reduce this right.
If the system of one person and one vote guarantees one person and one person, what mechanism is there to ensure that one person contributes one?In other words, when the welfare society is getting more and more expensive, who will pay the fee?The rich can flow (tax avoidance) everywhere, and the poor had no money, so they had to levy taxes from the middle class.
The problem is that under the influence of globalization and technological progress, the middle class has also been stretched, and the scale is generally shrinking.A harsh reality is that this wave of populism social foundation is not the poor in the original sense, but the middle class that encounters difficulties, or the social group where the middle class sinks into the poor.
Solving the differentiation of the rich and the poor is a severe challenge
Even if the government temporarily relieves some problems by opening new tax types (including rich taxes, robotic taxes or Internet traffic tax), from experience, the effect will not be too good.Some developed countries in Europe (all countries with a small population) implement a general salary system for one -person salary, but this is just a new version of the welfare system, or the extension of the original welfare system.
For the bottom level of society, the general salary system may also be just a modern version of the livelihood economy, that is, maintaining the lowest decent living standard.For countries with a large population, the general salary system faces the insurmountable difficulty: where does the money come from?After all, there are still very few rich people who are willing to be taxed.
From the perspective of experience, if the differentiation of the rich and the poor is the core and root of various social issues in various countries today, both governments are facing severe challenges in terms of cope with poverty or wealth.You can at least look at the following aspects.
First, the contradiction between technology and employment.Technological progress including automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, etc. is accelerating.Regardless of whether people like or not, the advancement of technology is unstoppable.The problem facing people is not that the technological progress itself, but the benefits brought by technological progress to a very small number of people. Most people not only are replaced by work, but also have not received the benefits brought by technological progress.
In the world, today's economic form is an exclusive economy, not the sharing economy.For most people, the source of wealth is not the benefits obtained through government tax, but the benefits obtained through employment.No employment is equivalent to the opportunity to share the results of economic development.When the machine deprives the employment opportunities, the rich and the poor are getting richer and the poor will become irresistible.
Second, the concentration of globalization and wealth.The contradiction here is like the contradiction between technology and employment.Globalization has created a huge amount of wealth.The problem is not the wealth brought about by globalization itself, but the benefits brought by globalization have been occupied by very few people who are participating and dominated by globalization.That is, their job opportunities are lost because of globalization, and their wages have declined due to globalization.
Globalization means the flow of capital and technology, and capital and technology flow to countries and regions with cheap labor and land.However, employees cannot flow.The impact of capital and technical loss on the original workers is obvious.Considering that for many rich people, economic globalization is also the most effective way to avoid taxes, and the situation is even more serious.
Third, the challenge of immigration.Immigration is often the flow of population from the poor to the rich.The poor pursue a better life, and the rich country actually needs new immigrants.Some scholars believe that in some countries, new immigrants are actually slaverys in disguise, because although new immigrants provide many needs in local society (especially jobs with high wages and high labor intensity), they live outside the system and have to get outside the system.Can't be protected by the local system.The problem is not here.Immigration often leads to the dissatisfaction of local citizens. Extra -ism and abroad are the most popular features of populism in contemporary society.
Fourth, the challenge of the existing system.The existing system is not built on quicksand, but is based on various vertical interest networks that are staggered, and after long -term peaceful development (that is, no war), the vested interests have become unbreakable.Although some vested interests sometimes discover conscience (such as the wealthy) and are willing to make more contributions to society, if they really move their interests, the situation will be very different and they will desperately resist.
This is why the outsiders of the contemporary political bureau rose, that is, the outsiders of the bureau grasped political power by effectively using social media and one by one vote.However, so far, no outsiders can move their vested interests.Even the US President Trump, who is regarded by many people as a political lunatic, has risen from outside the bureau and is paired with construction everywhere, but no one will think that he has the ability to shake the vested interests of American society; on the contrary, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, TrumpPu has become more and more of the benefits of his approval.
It should be said that traditional capitalism + democracy + welfare models have been successful for a century, and at least more successful than other systems.But today this system is facing unprecedented challenges because of unevenness of wealth distribution and high society.Now it seems that people cannot and cannot give up this system, because behind this system is huge vested interests.
From this point of view, how this system is transformed and upgraded, how to create a power mechanism for transformation and upgrading, and how to find an intermediary (such as politicians) that find transformation and upgrading, it basically determines the future of the Western world, even if it is not the future of the entire world.
(The author is a professor at the National University of Singapore and East Asia)
The article only represents personal point of view
