SOCIAL SECURITY PLANS

Kaikoura Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 59, 31 July 1944, Page 4

SOCIAL SECURITY PLANS

MINIMUM INCOME SOUGHT. Spokesmen, of National Planning Association declare programme would bentfit business as much as labour and would be vital aid to employment by assuring, continued ability to purchase goods. WASHINGTON, May 29. Immediate action to guarantee a minimum flow of incomes through an effective social security programme is as ni'uch in the interest of business as of labour, according to a joint statement on social security issued by the agriculture, business, and labour spokesmen of the National Planning Association. Assurance of continued purchasing power, the committees said, is an important clement in a programme of full employment because it will help to maintain markets on which business ami agriculture can count and to avoid a downward spiraling of economic activity in the period of post-war readjustment. William L. Batt (Chairman of the,

Planning Association), a privately fin-, anced, non-profit, non-politieal organisation devoted to planning by leaders in agriculture, business, ~ labour, and government, in conynenting on the 48 page statement discussing the issues raised by social security extension, and presenting a series of concrete proposals, said: ‘ 1 When you get a representative group of business, labour, and agriculture agreeing on a. social security policy, I. think you have something.” Chairmen of the three committees responsible for the statement are: Theodore W. Schultz (University of Chicago for Agriculture), David C. Prince (General Electric ‘Company for bus': ness), and Clinton S. Golden (United Steelworkers of America, for labour). QUICK ACTION URGED. In emphasising that immediate ac- I tiun is required, the committees state: 1

“We l.clieve that the specific pro gramme we have outlined is practical, economical, and . .It would be high’y irresponsible to assume that all ‘-ie necessary post-war adjustments can be carried through without the accompaniment of some measure of unemployment. Early achievement of the programme we have suggested would make possible the accumulation of benefit rights, so that if and when post-war unemployment comes, benefits lyay be paid according to the orderly processes of social insurance. Lacking such advance provision, we shall only repeat the errors of the 1930’5. Of first .importance, the statement emphasises, is a programme to help returning soldiers and displaced war workers live while they are looking for peacetime jobs. A special unemployment insurance progranyne and measures to protect the rights of ex-service men and women under old-age and sur vivors and disability insurance programmes should “properly be regarded as a war cost and charged to the Federal Government.” Similarly, benefits for all displaced ex-war workers during the reconversion period should* be assured, either through extension and

federalisation of the existing unemployment insurance systems or through i a temporary Federal war-adjustment pay programme. The committees specifically propose extending coverage to those ineligible under the present social security system. The statement also calls for strength ened employment service and for expanded curative and preventive health services. DIVISION OF COSTS. The statement recommends that the costs of the social insurance programme proposed should be shared by employ ers and workers through wage and payroll taxes, and by the citizens contributing to national tax revenues. Careful consideration of the possible inflationary or deflationary effects of different methods of financing social secur ; ! expenditure is also called for. The basic facts the N.P.A. offered j

were these: 1. u No democratic country can afford to stand passively by if ny 11 ions of its citizens are deprived of income. 2. “A social security programme is not a substitute for a programme of full employment, although by maintaining a minimum of purchasing power it is an important element in such a programme. 3. 4 4 The major goal of the post-war economy should be enough jobs, and lasting jobs, at fair rates of pay and reasonable hours of work. 4. “Knowledge about some causes of maladjustment in our economic system is still inadequate, and considerable disagreement exists among professional students and in other circles about the needed remedies. THREAT TO LIVING STANDARDS. 5. “Unemployment, should it occur, not only causes need and suffering to the workers concerned—it also threatens the standard of living of the entire nation—for the total national income on whiefi our prosperity depends is lowered when men and plants are idle.

6. “Want and distress do not arise solely as a result of unemplopment, many families in need do not have employable members. 7. 44 In large measure, the costs of assuring income to those who are at any given time deprived of private incomes, are inescapable. 8. 4 4 Far too large a proportion of the inability to work or to find employment and thus of the need for social security income is due to conditions which even now could be prevented. 9. 4 4 The problem of insecurity weighs heavily on the liquids of many millions of Americans. 10. “Social insurance applies the sound principle of pooling risks to reduce individual hardship. 11. “The provisions of the present social security laws are, however, far from adequate. 12. 4 4 The increasingly large scale on which governmental security programmes must necessarily operate must tend to divorce the citizen from participation in the programme. Calling for more democracy in social security, the committees suggested appointment by the President, with the approval of the Senate, of a “truly representative national advisory r-ommit-tee on social security composed of a cross section of business, agriculture, labour, and the general public ’ ’ to study the operation of the social security system as a whole and make periodic reports and recommendations to the Congress. Money can be found for war, it must be found to keep our people in employment.