We have a safety net.
European societies have been provided with a safety net: the welfare state.
It is a model of society where public service intervenes to improve the population’s standard of living and seek a more balanced distribution of resources through the different stages of our life.
This model ensures that people can access health and education services, offers unemployment benefits and pensions for retirement, widowhood, disability or orphanhood, and provides long-term care, among others.
The welfare state is maintained with government revenue, where some models are essentially funded by labour contributions (for example, in Spain), and other models, to a larger extent, are funded by taxes, like in the Nordic countries.
Given that welfare states were designed at the time when societies were young, they must now be adapted to societies that are no longer that way.
This doesn’t mean that they are not sustainable, however, as a society we must decide whether we want to bear the cost of its reform or, on the other hand, whether we prefer to continue without a safety net.
See the 2020 General State Budgets
Click to see the percentage allocated to each segment.
7.3% General public services
€ 26,713,129.89
8.6% Public debt
€ 31,547,483.77
5.9% Healthcare
€ 21,548,077.18
0.9% Education and culture
€ 3,427,676.24
2.1% Agriculture, fisheries and food
€ 7,706,941.65
6.5% Other (industry, housing, etc.)
€ 24,002,310.49
2.8% Public order and security
€ 10,197,816.69
13.4% Transfers to other government entities
€ 49,510,401.92
2.3% Defence
€ 8,400,561.54
7.3% General public services
€ 26,713,129.89
8.6% Public debt
€ 31,547,483.77
5.9% Healthcare
€ 21,548,077.18
0.9% Education and culture
€ 3,427,676.24
2.1% Agriculture, fisheries and food
€ 7,706,941.65
6.5% Other (industry, housing, etc.)
€ 24,002,310.49
2.8% Public order and security
€ 10,197,816.69
13.4% Transfers to other government entities
€ 49,510,401.92
2.3% Defence
€ 8,400,561.54
Source: BOE (Official State Gazette).
The welfare
state, our
safety net.
This episode explores how the pandemic caused by COVID-19 has impacted the ageing population, as well as the healthcare challenges that currently exist in Spain, with the help of Esther Camacho, neuropsychologist, and Lola Puga, head scientist of the CSIC and expert in demographics and ageing.
Acknowledgements:
Esther Camacho, Lola Puga, Mercedes Crespo and Amadina Espina.