In this extraordinary sequel to his bestselling The Welfare State We're In, James Bartholomew travels to eleven countries around the world, from Australia in the east and San Francisco in the west, to look at how "welfare states" are changing it.
In America he meets New Yorkers who pay bribes to get social housing in Harlem. In Singapore a welfare official explains the treatment received by single mothers asking for money. He takes a tour of the massive social housing blocks of Marseilles where his guide points out the gang members who control the estates. He discovers why divorce is seen as a positive thing by some in Sweden and visits the hospital in Spain where a new model of healthcare was born. Some welfare states have done more good and less harm than others. Which ones have got it right and how have they done it?
The twentieth century experienced the epochal war between capitalism and communism. Bartholomew argues that out of the ashes of that conflict, the real winner that emerged was welfare statism; and that far from being a compromise between the two ideologies it is a philosophy in its own right.
