Social Infrastructure Law in in the UK, EU and US

Bill Martin

Working Papers from Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge

Abstract: What should be the goals of social infrastructure, and the best means to achieve them? Social infrastructure is a new term to describe the welfare state, whose conceptual foundations were laid in Lord Beveridge's Report, Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942). A good government, said Beveridge, should tackle five evil ‘giants’, namely disease, ignorance, squalor, idleness, and want. These could be overcome with a universal free health service, public education, public housing, full employment, and income insurance (especially old age pensions, unemployment, and disability protection). Today, nearly every country has policies related to these goals, but with widely varying degrees of success. This chapter focuses on the unequal fulfilment of the rights to universal free higher education, health care, and the central bank’s operations in monetary policy as it affects the rights to social security, full employment with fair pay, and housing. It focuses on the UK, EU and US for comparisons. It contends that public education and health, free at the point of use, with democratic governance, produce the best outcomes: found more in Europe, not the US. It contends that central bank goals that place full employment and inflation on equal levels are superior: found more in the US than in Europe. Much is still to be desired in all systems to fulfil universal human rights.

Keywords: Welfare; social; infrastructure; education; health; central bank; housing; inflation; unemployment; university; human rights (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 I28 I31 K20 K23 K31 K38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac
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