U.S. Is Poor Model for Social Services

Countries throwing off the tyranny of totalitarian communism better not look to the United States as their model if they want to treat their citizens decently, and fairly, while they revolutionize their distressed economic systems.

America, as wealthy as we are, is the only industrialized nation except for South Africa that does not provide a wide range of social benefits from universal health care to maternity leave.

Most European countries, fully competitive with us, have long made certain that workers get enviable vacation time, a host of valuable family-care programs and other benefits those former communist nations would do well to offer workers.

The phony argument that we cannot do more to help the average American is based on the cry that our taxes are already too high. The argument is a brutally effective political weapon, brandished over many decades mostly by Republicans and nowadays by an increasing number of Democrats trying to fend off the attacks by saying they hate taxes as much as Republicans.

Obviously, none of us wants to see tax money spent needlessly, but the truth is our taxes are lower than those in every other major country.

In France, all taxes total 48.3% of the gross national product, 42.2% for the Germans, 38.8% for the British and 35.4% for the Japanese.

We pay only 32.6% in taxes as a percent of our GNP. If we would increase our taxes by just 1% of our GNP, revenue would increase by $55 billion a year--that would solve a lot of our problems.

While we tax ourselves less than others, we also cruelly follow more of a “soak-the-poor-and-middle-class” tax policy than other countries.

The gap between rich and poor Americans is getting wider and wider, but our top personal income tax rate is only 31%. Compare that to other countries such as France, where the top rate is 57%. Other European countries are close to that.

The irony of our reliance on a botched-up system of health-care delivery is that it costs us more than in other countries that have long had universal health care. So let’s save money and give all of us adequate care by using some version of the systems the Europeans use, or like the excellent Canadian plan.

We would have to spend more to get those other social benefits that are commonplace in Europe, but it would be worth it because they would strengthen family life that so many here piously say is so vital to our society.

UCLA Prof. Daniel Mitchell recently completed an in-depth comparison of social insurance and benefits offered by industrialized countries, and although his scholarly study doesn’t explicitly say it, the inevitable conclusion to be drawn from his figures is that America falls far short of providing the advantages enjoyed by most Europeans.

The most crucial omission in our thin, tattered social services safety net is universal health care that Congress still ignores even as it tinkers with plans to do something about the millions of Americans who have no health insurance at all.

But take a look at some of the more interesting benefits other countries offer:

There are laws in most European countries that make certain all workers get vacations. Here, all unionized workers get paid vacations and many, but far from all, non-union workers get them, depending on the whim of their employers.

French law requires employers to give workers five weeks of paid vacation after one year of employment. German workers get a minimum of 18 days after six months on a job, and several countries not only mandate vacation time but also require vacation bonuses. The bonus for Swedes is 12% of their annual pay, while Finns get 50% of one month’s pay--and the list goes on.

In this country, Congress is debating maternity pay plans, which President Bush says he will veto if Congress can agree on one. But even the most progressive proposal in Washington calls only for leave without any pay, which is ridiculously inadequate because most families so urgently need more income, not less, when a baby arrives.

Paid maternity leave is taken for granted in other industrialized nations, and families in most get extra allowances for a child.

German women, for instance, get six weeks of paid leave before and eight weeks after the birth of a child, plus a $360-monthly “child-raising” allowance for parents of children up to age 3.

French women get six weeks before and 10 weeks after birth, and after a third child, they get a total of 26 weeks paid leave.

Swedes get six weeks before and six after the birth of a child, and the leave time can be divided between the mother and father. The Swedes also get a child-raising allowance--and the list goes on.

In this country, we have a terribly inadequate unemployment insurance system. Under increasingly rigid eligibility rules, only about 38% of unemployed workers get some benefits, and for only 26 weeks.

Before the anti-worker Reagan Administration began in 1981, the benefits were small, but at least the eligibility rules were far less restrictive, and 75% of the jobless were able to get benefits to help tide them over their hard times.

European unemployment benefit plans vary, but all are much better than the parsimonious one we provide. German workers get 68% of their wages for up to 624 days. Low-income Japanese jobless get 80% of their wages for up to 300 days; Canadians get 60% of their wages for up to 50 weeks.

The same sad comparisons can be made for other benefits ranging from disability insurance to retirement plans.

Yes, we can be a model in some ways for countries once run with gross inefficiency by oppressive governments before the remarkable changes brought about largely by Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

But they should look elsewhere for a model to follow if they want to create a social system that shows compassion for all citizens.