Re: AUT: Harald, welfare state

[Michael Handelman <mhandelman1@xxxxxxxxx>]

Has anyone thought there is a simultaneous large
contraction of the welfare-state but also a slight
"expansion of the welfare state"  TO GIVE THE
IMPRESSION THAT they aren't cutting back the
welfare-state. For example, while there have been
major cuts to social welfare, health care etc I have
noticed an expansion of things (government programs
etc) dealing with "learning disabled" kids (something
that I bet is quite recent??this probably emerged in
the 70s).

Somebody should write something about the relationship
between educational classifications (LD, Gifted,
Bright etc) and neo-liberal/"informational"
capitalism. And the ideology surrounding these
classifications (I get so pissed off, when I hear
these ideologues of educational classifications, how
they're trying to "help me"???I wish they would say
what they really mean: conform to the demands of
Capital)


--- Nate Holdren <nateholdren@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi Harald-
>
> This isn't a direct reply, just some thoughts that
> you stirred up.
>
> in reply to Arianna you said
>
> >the "well-fare state," the state control over
> increasingly more
> >parts of our life, a sort of de-privatization (even
> when not
> >directly run by, but only regulated by the state)
> in the sense
> >that what formerly was controlled by the family
> (and often
> >religious institutions too) no longer is. At least
> in the part of
> >the world we seem to be talking about, there are
> far more
> >social workers (I do not here use "social worker"
> in the sense
> >used by Negri. and so on), sociologists etc than
> there
> >ever was in the so-called Fordist era, and there
> are far more
> >workers employed by "the welfare state" now than
> then.
>
> This is very relevant to some of us here in the US.
>
> I'm no expert and the old version of the welfare
> state is before my time,
> but the impression I get is that much of the
> apparatus of administration
> that ran the provisioning of 'welfare' still remain
> while the actual
> benefits received continue to lessen. In an essay by
> Paolo Virno I've been
> discussing elsewhere Virno talks about the growth of
> administration in
> post-fordist production. It seems to me that you're
> right in part that the
> welfare state hasn't simply disappeared and that
> this is compatible w/
> Virno's claims about administraion, one could argue
> that the welfare state
> is transformed/transforming to a more purely
> administrative function.
>
> Here in my state, Illinois, recent budget crises
> resulted in some $370
> billion dollars being removed from Medicaid (a
> health care provisioning
> program for the very poor), resulting in fees for
> presecription services
> being introduced (an additional hardship for an
> already hard hit population
> but more relavent here) which place an additional
> burden on the
> administration of benefits. Given that budgets are
> not being raised, this
> means processing the fees will require a shifting of
> resources internally
> from paying for benefits to more administrative
> functions.
>
> Various pieces of the remaining 'welfare state' -
> institutions aimed at
> providing job training and assisting in meeting
> basic needs - are
> increasingly in private hands (though often
> recieving some level of state
> funding), particularly medical clinics, housing
> assistance, etc.
>
> In my state the activities of not for profit
> organizations accounts for
> approximately 10% of total economic activity, a
> figure that was for me
> pretty startling. This leaves out for-profit
> agencies fulfilling what were
> previously state functions.
>
> Another trend in state spending has been the
> channeling of funds through
> police and criminal justice related programs, as a
> result of easier access
> to funds if a program is linked somehow to fighting
> crime. More recently
> this has can be seen here in the 'homeland security'
> public discussions -
> more than just hysteria, the discussions of homeland
> security entail an
> extension of administrative functions and a linking
> of other functions to
> policing/security (like public health programs, for
> example. I know people
> who work diagnosing, tracking, and treating cases of
> tuberculosis among the
> very poor and homeless here in Chicago. Projects of
> this sort that can be
> linked to 'homeland secturity' have a much easier
> time getting funding,
> resulting in reshaping 'welfare' style benefit
> provision further toward
> social control/administration.)
>
> just my thoughts.
>
> best,
> Nate
>
>
>
>
_________________________________________________________________
> Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device:
> http://mobile.msn.com
>
>
>
>      --- from list
> aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes
http://finance.yahoo.com


     --- from list aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---