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Read The Book
Before the welfare state
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The Greycoat Hospital
The Greycoat Hospital was once a workhouse. It has since been a hospital and a school. It has a very long welfare history. It has now been taken over by the state.
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The Greycoat Hospital
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Education and State
Licence
Stats
The Spirit Level – “trash social science”
If you want a quick guide what may be misleading about the influential book, The Spirit Level, it worth listening to this interview with Peter Saunders, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Sussex University. This debate is highly important. If it … Continue reading
Interview in Sweden
Here is an interview I did earlier this year in Sweden. http://www.axess.se/tv/program.aspx?id=2666
Posted by James Bartholomew
Indexed in Education, European Union, General, Healthcare and the NHS, Parenting, Pensions, Politics, Unemployment, Welfare benefits
The drive towards ‘lower inequality’
This idea is not going away. As part of the research for my new book, I visited the OECD last week and interviewed eight people there. The concept of low inequality being a ‘good thing’ was referred to explicitly or … Continue reading
Esping-Andersen and his three worlds of welfare capitalism
One of the most influential writers on welfare states is Gosta Esping-Andersen. Back in 1989, he wrote a book called The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism in which he categorised welfare states into three kinds. When I first heard about … Continue reading
We don’t follow logic. We follow emotions
“Understanding is not cognitive. It is emotional.” In other words, you do not understand something because you have successfully followed a line of logic. You understand it at an emotional level. This assertion was made to me recently by a … Continue reading
Is the Gini coefficient efficient?
How reliable are the statistics about equality in various countries – the so called Gini coefficients? I was intrigued when I was told in Sweden that while it is apparently one of the most equal countries in the world in … Continue reading
Italy and Sweden – worlds apart
I have done two highly contrasting trips in the past few months. First Italy and then Sweden. In both cases, the trips were prompted by other things but I used them to research a new book I am writing about … Continue reading
Posted by James Bartholomew
Indexed in Education, General, Healthcare and the NHS, Housing, Parenting, Welfare benefits, Work on the new book
Switzerland must be doing something right
The Swiss franc has risen strongly and yet unemployment remains low. Despite the strong franc, Swiss unemployment is at 3.1 percent, the lowest since February 2009, and leading economic indicators from the KOF research institute stayed at the highest in … Continue reading
Coming research trips for the new book
To research the new book, I will be making a number of trips abroad in the coming 18 months. My first will be to Rome. I will only have a single day available – 20th May – because this was … Continue reading
Superb counter-blast against the growing consensus that equal incomes make for happier countries
This is part of a superb counter-blast (see page 4) to the idea – encapsulated in a book called The Spirit Level – that we should aim for more equal societies because they are more cohesive and even happy. The … Continue reading