The Budget 2020 brings back on the national agenda the importance of social cohesion. People may have different views of what social cohesion is all about. It certainly is not another name for the welfare state. It is more the glue that holds society together through shared values, beliefs and behaviours.
While there is always an underclass in every society, no one can deny that the new economy, while creating a new prosperous class, has also left many others behind because of their inability to cope with the changes of an evolving economic reality. Pensioners, the sick, single parents, persons with disabilities and others who from an early stage in life fail to see a future for themselves or their families need the support of the rest of society to integrate more into the community.
The working poor are a reality that the Budget 2020 attempts to help through various micro measures that will hopefully make their future prospects that much brighter. It would be a mistake to interpret this attempt to promote social cohesion as a nostalgic desire to revive some of the less desirable aspects of the welfare state. The culture of dependence on state support could do more harm than good for those who are perfectly capable of helping themselves.
Social cohesion is about helping young people get on the property ladder at a time when property prices are beyond the reach of many who, despite being employed, do not have the necessary financial means to buy their first home. It is also about helping pensioners to avoid poverty in the most critical stage of their lives when they can no longer help themselves through paid work. It is about helping parents, especially mothers, cope with the arduous task of caring for a child with special needs or looking after a sick parent.
It is significant that, this year, the Nobel Memorial Prize for economics has been awarded to three economists for their work in addressing global poverty.
One of these economists, Esther Duflo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, made a very valid point when she said that her goal is to make sure that the fight against poverty is based on scientific evidence. She argues: “The poor are often reduced to caricatures and often, even people who try to help them do not actually understand what the deep roots of the problem are.”
Education is the most powerful generator of social capital in any society. The government needs to do more to ensure that the obstacles to educational achievement faced by many young people from deprived backgrounds are addressed more vigorously than they are at present.
Budget 2020 may have missed an excellent opportunity to underpin the government’s social cohesion strategy by giving more importance to the role of educators in fighting child poverty.
To do this, educators must feel that they are appreciated while being held accountable for the results they achieve.
An underlying principle for real social cohesion is that everyone is expected to do their part. There is often a ‘social contract’ in place which is the set of unwritten rules and expectations for which members of society are expected to comply.
One hopes that the social measures of the 2020 budget will be followed by others to strengthen social cohesion.