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Anyone interested in Means Testing and the impact on policy needs to read up about Australia. Start with this article : https://www.businessinsider.com.au/why

by sien 6y ago

Anyone interested in Means Testing and the impact on policy needs to read up about Australia. Start with this article : https://www.businessinsider.com.au/why-having-the-best-social-welfare-system-in-the-world-matters-to-australia-2016-10 https://www.businessinsider.com.au/why-having-the-best-socia... From the article: "Figures published by the advanced-country OECD put us second-lowest of 29 countries, with only Switzerland spending less. Government in the US makes up 38% of the economy. In most developed countries, government is over 40% of the economy. In eight advanced nations, government is over 50% of the economy. A targeted welfare system means Australians pay a lot less tax than citizens in most rich nations." Australia has universal health care. Australia has a pretty good education system and fairly low taxes. Australia's system is far from perfect. But it is pretty good and it uses means testing and targeting of welfare extensively.

djrobstep 6y ago
Australia's welfare system isn't "pretty good". It's terrible. Targeting simply means more stigma towards poor folks, and narrower political support. Less targeting is actually better if you want more redistribution, more equality, broader political support, and less stigma. Welfare shouldn't be simply a last-resort safety net for the most unfortunate, it should help everybody live a smoother, easier life. The means-tested pension is particularly bad - all it does is result in people restructuring their finances to hack the means-testing measure, and make average people obsessed with "super" (privatized retirement accounts) instead. Key thing to remember is that welfare "spending" isn't "spending" or "costs" in the sense that eg buying a fighter jet is. It's just redistribution - so tax "churn" or low "targeting" doesn't really matter.

by sien 6y ago

djrobstep 6y ago

Australia's welfare system isn't "pretty good". It's terrible. Targeting simply means more stigma towards poor folks, and narrower political support. Less targeting is actually better if you want more redistribution, more equality, broader political support, and less stigma. Welfare shouldn't be simply a last-resort safety net for the most unfortunate, it should help everybody live a smoother, easier life. The means-tested pension is particularly bad - all it does is result in people restructuring their finances to hack the means-testing measure, and make average people obsessed with "super" (privatized retirement accounts) instead. Key thing to remember is that welfare "spending" isn't "spending" or "costs" in the sense that eg buying a fighter jet is. It's just redistribution - so tax "churn" or low "targeting" doesn't really matter.