Annotation1: Securing social stability before economic development (Revised)

Source: 
http://www.issa.int/Resursy/ISSA-Publications/Dynamic-Social-Security-Securing-social-stability-and-economic-development

Dynamic Social Security: Securing social stability and economic development

ISSA’s Social Security Observatory
Chapter 1 and Chapter 6

         We can see from the report that, if a country faced global economic downturn, the problems of unemployment and poverty will increase violently, and the government had to spend money on the social security program such as tax reduce and health insurance in order to maintain social stability in the country. But when the level of unemployment and poverty had increased so violently that the country’s financial foundation couldn’t hold them anymore, this country’s economic system might eventually crumble. As we see from this paragraph: 

    “As we arrive at the end of 2010, global economic recovery and exit from the crisis remains slow and uncertain. Despite signs of recovery in global markets, in many countries unemployment is not falling. Higher levels of unemployment continue to restrain social security income from contributions while simultaneously requiring ongoing increased expenditure on benefits.”
        The expending on social security is like an endless money-burning vortex, as long as the number of the unemployed remains high, this vicious spiral will ends up becoming the great hole of the country ‘s economy. And as the report suggests, among Asia country, “Social security systems are integral to the management of the social, economic and political dimensions.” (Page 7) Our economic system are bounded with the social security systems, the over-expense of social security will eat up our money which we are going to spend on improving the country’s economic structure.

from page 7

The economic policy in Asia and Pacific area

         And what does this issue has anything that is related to the argument of balance between economy and social fairness? Well, in Taiwan we have a mature structure of social security, the farmer got the agriculture subvention, the poor got monthly financial support, and the sick got health insurance. When our society seems so perfect and calm, our government is already having troubles financing these social securities. But as recent years our government kept pursuing the economic prosperity, more and more farmers and workers or those so-called “the minority” had lost their job or having a hard time in their life. Thus, the expending of social security had increased highly over recent years(note 1), and this became a heavy burden while Taiwan is trying hard building its economy.

Note 1: 自由時報: 明年總預算 社福支出占最多
 http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2013/new/aug/23/today-p1-2.htm