Who Should Control Social Welfare?:
COHEN, WILBUR J.
Who Should Control Social Welfare? Welfare in America. By Vaughn Davis Bornet. Oklahoma. 319 pp. $4.95. Reviewed by Wilbur J. Cohen Assistant Secretary for Legislation, U.S. Health, Education...
...Bornet seems to reflect a distrust of government in the social welfare field...
...Health, Education and Welfare Department Welfare in America is essentially a discourse on the principal elements of public and private social welfare in the United States, intended "to bring into focus issues that have divided our people...
...It is not clear what the term "welfare state" means to Bornet, but it is clear that he believes that the government's role in social welfare has been overextended...
...He could have indicated that since the inception of our national Social Security program, both private insurance and personal savings have increased markedly...
...While it would be difficult to list all of the specific issues dealt with in this book, the principal ones are: how much social welfare, at what cost, how to finance it...
...There is a note of disapproval in his statement that "Social insurance programs have been moving into a field once occupied by private insurance, personal savings, family devotion, and charity...
...This and similar statements do not invite confidence in the author's grasp of the subject...
...A further fact is that none of these programs has universal coverage in American society...
...Viewing voluntary social welfare and government welfare programs as competitors or rivals, his chief concern about welfare patterns in the U.S...
...He suspects that one of the things likely to keep the program going may be the practical problem of job security for social workers...
...For example, he says: "Persons may get back far more— or far less—than they pay in...
...Public assistance and social insurance," the author states, "particularly in their payments to aging citizens, have become real competitors...
...Bornet is not, by any stretch of the imagination, objective on the subject: "The move to bring socialized medicine to the nation through the back door of OASDI amendment is legitimate enough—if that is what the nation insists upon—but so grave a step must come after a prolonged and informed consideration...
...seems to be that the "welfare state" will replace the voluntary effort...
...The fact that he finds much to criticize in the private, voluntary social welfare effort does not offset the impression that he would like to see government's role in the field cut back sharply...
...Bornet proceeds to describe as shocking the fact that in the 1940s and '50s there were many aged persons who "got infinitely more out of their Social Security than they or their employers paid in...
...The fact is that the two programs serve different purposes and are not competitors in any real sense...
...The author's reference to proposals to provide health insurance under the Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program points up his opinion that they are proposals for socialized medicine...
...The breadth of the book's subject matter is perhaps responsible for its major shortcomings: The issues are not discussed in depth, and opinions and conclusions often lack supporting reasons or reflect inadequate understanding of certain aspects of social welfare...
...His exposition suggests that he does not understand, or that he would not have the reader understand, why this situation obtained, why it is entirely acceptable in social insurance (not to mention private retirement systems), and that it has nothing to do with the question of whether Social Security is insurance...
...The author treats a wide variety of subjects, and he draws upon what seems to have been a substantial number of contacts in the social welfare field...
...I do not know how one measures family devotion, but my personal observation suggests that it has not diminished since the beginning of Social Security...
...The author argues that Social Security is not insurance...
...Nor did I find the author's examination of the subject as objective as the dust jacket suggests it to be...
...Several statements seem to reflect a misunderstanding of the nature and purposes of some of the programs touched upon...
...This means that many consumers who have lacked 'coverage' have for a generation footed a part of the social insurance bill for others through increased prices on things they have bought...
...The reasons the author gives to support his view are somewhat baffling...
...These statements are irrelevant to the issue...
...And the author's suspicion that social workers will help to keep the old-age assistance program going in order to preserve their jobs hardly stands up to the fact that public welfare officials have recommended that the social insurance program should be continuously improved as a major income maintenance program, with public assistance taking an increasingly residual role...
...I heartily disagree...
...There is some indication that the author's interest in strengthening voluntary social welfare is motivated more by a dislike for government efforts than by a desire for an improved total social welfare effort...
...I disagree most emphatically...
...under whose control and by what methods...
Vol. 44 • July 1961 • No. 27
