Ederer, Peer; Schuller, Philipp; Willms, Stephan --- "The Economic Sustainability Indicator" [2006] ELECD 484; in Tremmel, Chet Joerg (ed), "Handbook of Intergenerational Justice" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Handbook of Intergenerational Justice

Editor(s): Tremmel, Chet Joerg

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845429003

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: The Economic Sustainability Indicator

Author(s): Ederer, Peer; Schuller, Philipp; Willms, Stephan

Extract:

7 The Economic Sustainability Indicator
Peer Ederer, Philipp Schuller, Stephan Willms


Political motivation
Despite general prosperity and peace, anxiety about the future prevails in
Europe. Unlike generations before them, today's citizens no longer believe
that tomorrow will be better than today. There are many external and
internal reasons for this but one of them is the vanishing trust in public insti-
tutions and the belief that these will not be able to cope with, in particular,
an unfavourable demography that is predicted for nearly all of Europe.
And it is true, the welfare institutions in the broadest sense, that is, public
pension systems, disability insurance, alimentation of the poor health care
but also public education, are products of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. They have not been fundamentally changed since their inception
and fit today's social reality about as well as a horseshoe on a tiger's paw.
The most important risks that need social insurance today are no longer
poor old age, ill health or accident; they are different: outdated skills, relo-
cation requirements, lack of competitiveness. Nevertheless, rather than
adapt, the welfare state has attempted to cover today's risks with the old
remedies. Under-skilled or uncompetitive labour has been removed from
the labour force and relegated into any one of the social security systems.
The result has been the opposite of what most proponents of strong welfare
institutions would have hoped for: rather than strengthen human capital in
its competition with financial capital, they ...