Welfare states will serve the interests of temporarily reassuring people — Russia in the global inspection
What is preferable – a welfare state or a state “for its own”? What are human properties for inequality? What will be the social policy in the coming years? Why is left-wing populism no longer attractive? On the problems of humanity in 2022 Fedor Lukyanov talked to Oksana Sinyavskaya, Deputy Institute for Director of Social Policy, National Research University Higher School of Economics. Interview prepared specially for the program “International Review”.
– The most acute military-political crisis that the world is going through, as they say, leads to non-ozonation, but it is clear that in the end, a lot is ultimately determined with the use of trends. Where do they lead?
– The main problems that existed before the pandemic, and before all the current events, have not gone away. One of the most pressing problems in the modern world is inequality. At the beginning of 2022, another report on global core inequality under Tom Piketty was published, which shows that, in general, we have not even returned only to the beginning of the twentieth century, but in some cases the arrival (for example, inequality in ownership property) we surpassed in the beginning of the 20th century. All the processes that are being provoked now, including those provoked by sanctions, will certainly exacerbate the growth of inequality and the impoverishment of those who were already poor. At least in the coming years, an acute problem will arise that will cause an increase in morbidity and morbidity.
– Piketty has been scary for a long time. Is he exaggerating?
– No, he is just one of the problems who are trying to fight the favorite slogans of the liberals that there should be less state, and only in conditions of widespread business will flourish, and economic growth makes us all richer. Piketty and co-authors are remarkably clear that yes, there is economic growth, but the 1 percent or 0.01 percent of the world’s population is getting richer. Even the middle class of the world market, as defined by the top 10 percent of people, is being consumed. And the gap between them and the poorest part of humanity also competes. This is bad, although it also took into account that the recent developments have led to inequality among Member States and growing inequality, mainly within countries. We understand that this is happening at the expense of the successes of China and others.
– From the point of view of stability, it is more dangerous, isn’t it?
– In general, yes. This undermines patterns, and many states begin to act with this internal instability in mind.
– They promise that the population of the Earth exceeds 8 billion. Does it mean something or does it really not matter?
– It was destroyed long ago. This corresponds to the trends of recent events, when we will grow by a billion in ten or twelve years. From the point of view of limited resources, this is alarming, but I would not fall into some kind of Malthusian alarmism and say that we will all die. The problem of limited resources of water and food, especially in most poor countries, is exacerbated due to population growth. And this growth comes at the expense of the poorest: India, Africa and other countries.
– Recently, you have been dealing with labor market problems a lot. For me, the enchanting phrase is “platform employment”. The relationship between man and labor in this strange world is, on the one hand, technology, on the other, a certain political archaization. What’s happening?
“We’re moving away from that short period, over the last hundred or so years. We are returning from high wage employment under normal conditions (at the age of fifteen he came to give birth and knows what will happen to you at sixty), back – to a less standard form, where there are many self-employed, practicing entrepreneurs. And often these self-employed are in an undesirable position than the wage earners, but nonetheless, are distinguished by a variety of different employment formats. There is a game on the platform.
– What is a platform?
Basically, aggregators. We all know them well. The most popular aggregator is Yandex.Taxi, but, in fact, Yandex is wider than taxis. Google, beloved by the population “Avito” is also a platform. That is, a platform is any electronic platform where you can connect a buyer to services or goods, although they mainly talk about services. The point of the employment platform is that people come out and offer services. This form of employment is by no means covered by the themes of social policy institutions that have developed for wage labor in standard industry. And this is happening all over the world. Somewhere their turnover is squeezed into the standard regulation, but this is a Procrustean bed from which the turnover platform has jumped out. And this is not the only change in the labor market, because a lot of things have changed due to the advent of artificial intelligence. All this, again, leads to an increase in inequality, at least in earnings and in the opportunities for any events during life.
Does it exacerbate the problem, rather than solve it?
– Makes it worse. Even American economists, who are the most liberal, are already sounding the alarm and writing that it would be good to think about how to make artificial intelligence human-centric so that it does not lead to a gradual gap and polarization in the labor market. We are also having such a discussion, discussing whether it is possible to make the life of people who work on the platform or in other new formats of economic activity more secure than it is now.
– Good. In these conditions, which are becoming more complicated in all areas, what should be the social policy in the state? Especially considering that the aggravation of internal tension will increase.
– I am not very optimistic in this matter. It is believed that in the coming years we will see an almost universal growth of right-wing populism, since the demands are justified, that it is important to somehow reassure the peoples in the current not absolutely objective grounds. Therefore, athletes will have a form of social support for the majority of the poor, there will be a lot of slogans and accusations of crimes. At the same time, I also do not see any reasons for the internal restructuring of society to meet new challenges, because all new risk groups are very divided. They do not have the internal cohesion that the proletariat had 150 years ago. In this sense, I think that social states are returning with us, but they will serve the interests of the temporary peace of people to a greater extent than any new risks are acceptable, for example, the social service of the labor market is facing.
– Why can you master populism? Leftist populism?
“Left populism needs grassroots solidarity. The new risk groups that are found in modern societies have very little in common. Most likely, they can rally in the face of not an external external attack, an external enemy, or gatherings claiming a piece of the public pie – this is what we are seeing in Europe after the 2008 revolution. It explains chauvinistic sentiments, which can be expressed by the phrase: “We are for a welfare state, but a state “for our own””.
Be ready! Always ready. The broadcast of the program “International Review” from 29.07.2022
Fedor Lukyanov
How will the war of the West against the new reality end? What will China be like after the autumn congress and is it ready to lead neo-globalization? What has changed since the pandemic in the social sphere? Why platform employment is becoming mass? Watch the last broadcast of the program “International Review” with Fyodor Lukyanov on the TV channel “Russia-24”.
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