BriTaiN oN SoCiAL WeLfArE & oThEr iSsUeS

Monday, November 3rd

This morning I caught up on journaling for the weekend, and checked my e-mail to find a wonderful message from my brother that made me very happy. :)

I went to my IS-381 class today. I really enjoy this class because it tells you so much about the current standards of ‘culture and civilization’ in Europe. Today’s topic of discussion was the British Social and Welfare systems, in which I realized really, how liberal the nation is, making sense why there are so many Obama supporters. The problem is that Britain is SO generous, that they are absolutely broke… but somehow their dollar is stronger than ours… I just don’t get any of this…

We talked a bit about immigration, and how Britain will not send illegal immigrants back to threatening countries, in fact only about 5% of those caught are actually deported. Our professor said that Britain is starting to follow the example of America’s stricter immigration laws, but still is rather lenient.

From this, other problems occur in the welfare system. Because the benefits apply to anyone, literally anyone can get free healthcare, unemployment pensions, education, and other benefits, paid for by the government, in generous amounts. Because there are so many people in this situation, the unemployment rate is at 4% and steadily increasing. He also told us about how it is not uncommon for many people to ‘work the system’ for a living as there is no time frame for unemployment benefits to run out.

Going a bit further into a few of these categories…

Healthcare:
This is funded by the National Insurance, and like the U.S., paid for by the working class. Since there is such a large population, there are so many people needing the service. The problem lies with the fact that the program is severely under funded and severely abused. Going back to immigration, literally anyone can go in and get most kinds of treatment, no questions asked. This means that illegal immigrants, who have contributed nothing to the workforce, can come in, taking benefits from those who the money is intended for. With the vast population of immigrants here, this has become a problem. He also mentioned that the older population has caused a problem with the health care due to longer life spans and the eligibility for retirement at age 60. Older people need more health care, so this combined with money for pensions cause a significant drain in governmental funds as well.

The answer to many of the British society is to take out private health insurance to achieve better health care. Our professor, having taken this route as well, stated that about 30% of the population has private health insurance. With private health care, the patient is able to get suitable health care within only about 2 days for example, as opposed to 6-10 weeks.

Education:
Like the U.S., Britain has free education up till their equivalent of high school. They used to fund universities as well, but back to the original problem… there is just simply not enough money to fund everything they wish. With the previous policy at the university level, a student would have free education, housing, and a grant of extra money to spend while attending. However, now, our professor told us about all the problems faced by so many students who do not speak English, and the schools’ lack of education for them. Apparently Britain does not have as many ESL classes as the states, and this causes a problem for the student, and the rest of the class in getting ahead. When these students are taught in class, they go home to non-English speaking families, and they cannot be held back a grade to learn sufficiently what they were supposed to. So in theory, any student can pass because they do not hold you back a grade no matter what, even though he has not understood half of what the teacher has told him.

Benefits and Homeless:
Britain is obliged to house the homeless, and this has caused much controversy also because of the illegal immigrants. The problem is that they are often living in really nice housing because there is nothing else left for the authorities to place them in, and citizens who are working get upset with that. The British Welfare system also gives money to those who are unemployed, sick and unable to work, bringing up children, and without housing. This also means that a mother can choose to stay home and raise her children and get paid for it.

We talked a lot about these issues, and I see where the problem is: how can one government have enough money to pay for all of this? And that is ONLY the welfare system, not any other division of governmental duties.

During the break in class, a few of us went out into the lobby and watched a bit of the BBC coverage of the election. I felt VERY out of place. John McCain was speaking, and everyone was criticizing him (there are a LOT of liberal people on this trip… I am one of three people that is not as much…), so I chose not to say anything really because I didn’t want to get into a political debate... and they were all getting rather heated about some things. It almost reminded me of a southern Baptist church with people yelling after everything he said… except it was in disagreement. Ha.

Also, the BBC, Britain being a very liberal nation, had all kinds of Obama headlines under McCains speech, almost like it was trying as much as possible to distract from it. It was funny from my perspective, not only as more of a Republican, but more so as a visual artist/designer, seeing the techniques and ‘subliminal advertising’ the station was trying to get across. Haha, to think, this is the kind of thing I am going to be doing with my life… however, probably not with anything more exciting than “buy this magazine!” or “this company is better than yours!” ha.

Anyway, I went back to class where we finished up with this lecture, and then went back to my room for the rest of the night to catch up on some homework, journaling, life drawing, blogging, and such. Did I catch up? Well, I sincerely tried to if that counts…