03 The Welfare State
Are we laying the Welfare State to rest? Has its end really come? The crisis which has scourged Europe over recent years, and in particular countries such as Spain, has highlighted the weakness of States in protecting and maintaining public services which are essential for a society registering continuous demographic growth. Public finance systems are buckling, revealing their inability to support the administration of rights such as social security, health care, education, pensions and care for the disabled. States’ coffers are running low, and day by day we see more social rights fall by the wayside, more public services die off, and a new lost generation come into being. But do we know what is truly at stake? [...]
The voices
VÍDEO: The voice of a trader
The voice of an academic director of Health Economics programmes
Putting affairs in order to give value to Public HealthcareJaume Puig-Junoy
Director of Health Economics programmes, Barcelona School of Management
Despite the still relatively robust condition of public health care in Spain, provided that the axe of budgetary cutbacks does not ultimately destabilise it in the short term, the medium-term [...]
The voice of Economy and Financial expert
Is the current welfare state sustainable?Oriol Amat
Professor of Economy and Financial Programmes, Barcelona School of Management
The welfare state essentially comprises such provisions as pensions, unemployment benefit and services including healthcare, education, care for dependent people and other social services. There is a broad consensus that [...]
The voice of a Public Policy Director
In Defence of the Welfare StateVicenç Navarro
Professor of Public Policy, IDEC-Pompeu Fabra University
One of the great victories of progressive forces in the Western world has been the establishment of the Welfare State, which includes those public transfers (such as, for example, retirement [...]
The voice of an academic director of Publishing programmes
What place does culture hold in a welfare society?Javier Aparicio Maydeu
Director of Publishing programmes at IDEC-UPF
Many may feel, and not without reason, that it should supplement the creation of citizenship, contribute to our emotional balance, distract us from the stress caused by our work, increase [...]
The voice of the company by VidaCaixa
On the starting lineJosé Antonio Iglesias
Marketing and Business Development director of VidaCaixa
The moments right before the horns blast indicating the start of a regatta are always exciting. There is a certain confusion, there are mixed strategies, sudden changes due to the [...]
The voice of an academic director of Tax System programmes
Taxes and public SpendingAntoni Duran-Sindreu Buxadé
Director of Tax System Programmes, Barcelona School of Management
Taxes, as the Constitution states, are the technical instrument necessary to cover public spending. The main action undertaken by the Government therefore has to be focused on spending, or even [...]
The voice of MBA student
Without the heart, the person is never presentCarlos Casanova
Architect and former MBA student at Barcelona School of Management
As human beings we are born with different levels of evolution in terms of the three innate capacities we enjoy: thinking, feeling and acting, and while one of these may [...]