POL214Y1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8-9: Pension, Western Europe, Social Mobility
Document Summary
Europe and the us: two different social models. Americans and europeans think differently about poverty, inequality, redistribution of income from the rich to the poor, social protection, and welfare. Americans do not consider themselves to be less happy as inequality increases (eu does) Europeans freely and willingly choose to have a larger welfare state, with all the associated costs in terms of taxation and regulation, because they dislike inequality. Welfare state in w europe are diff, but common: an extensive involvement of the state in redistribution and social protection to a much larger extent than in the united states. Europe spends more than the united states on every social program, but especially on the unemployed and on poor families. Public pensions are more generous in europe economists characterize the nordic welfare states as a success; the mediterranean ones (italy, Though there"s no much diff in social mobility: americans view society as very mobile while europeans see it as immobile.
