How the ideology of a welfare state has destroyed our
continent and impoverished its people
Everywhere I turn these days, Ugandans (and Africans
generally) are complaining about the sorry state of our education and
healthcare systems. There is a widespread belief across development literature
that state (or public) investment in health and education is a panacea to the
problems of development.
I recently saw Bill Gates in Nigeria regurgitating this
mantra on CNN. It is intriguing how people, even the most enlightened, can pick
on an idea that lacks historic precedent and turn it into a widely accepted
truth.
The reader should note that I am not against education and
healthcare. There are many economic and welfare benefits that come with an
educated and healthy citizenry. I am against the idea of publically funded
universal education and healthcare in poor countries for the simple reason that
they do not have the resources to do it. But this ideology has led our people
to expect the state to provide these social services for free to everyone,
everywhere.
The idea of a nanny state doesn’t stop at only publically
funded healthcare and education. Recently, the government of Uganda and its
“development partners” began piloting a project in thirteen districts where the
state will be paying an allowance to all poor elderly citizens in the country.
The plan is to make it universal. The government of Uganda is very poor. Public
spending per person (total national budget divided by total population) is
about $170 this financial year. Yet our government wants to construct a welfare
state with functions rivalling those of the USA where public spending per
person this year is $21,860.
Ugandans (and Africans) may never know how debilitating this
state welfare ideology has been first, to the evolution of a functional state;
second, to the development of the right social attitudes and mentality for
individual and collective progress; and third to the economic transformation we
seek. I will address the effects of this state welfare ideology on these three
points in turn.
The idea of a welfare (or nanny) state is a recent one. It
emerged in the early 20th century and gained traction most especially after
World War Two. Historically, people’s education, health and pensions were the
responsibility of the individual, his/her family, the church and other
charitable bodies. Across the Western world, it was not the responsibility of
the state to babysit citizens. People progressed based on individual
initiative.
The welfare state ideology was occasioned by the
transformation of Western countriesfrom backward rural, agricultural societies
to modern urban industrial nations. This led to the development of a large
middle class, professionals, organised labour and “civil society.” But its most
definitive feature was the enormous growth in state revenues due to increased
incomes.
Thus, at the time most Western nations adopted the welfare
state, governments hadresources to pay for it. However, this ideology was
transferred to poor countries as a religion without any consideration to their
resource capabilities. In fact it became “the way every state functions”. This
has burdened states with responsibilities they have no capacity to handle.
Look at the state of Uganda as an example. Our government
promises to provide education and healthcare to everyone, everywhere for free –
on a budget of $170 per year. This is absurd. The consequence is that the state
is overdeveloped in function but underdeveloped in capacity; its reach goes far
beyond its grasp. This is the leading cause of widespread corruption and
incompetence. Ugandans may never realise that it is attempts to do everything
for everyone everywhere on a shoe-string budget that is the cause of the
institutional dysfunctions we so often complain about.
The second effect of the welfare state ideology is on the
mentality of our educated elites. Everywhere people complain that government
has not done this or that for them. There is very little attempt to take
personal responsibility for one’s failures. The mentality that personal
advancement is a responsibility of the state rather than the individual is
destructive. Someone acquires a bachelors or masters or PhD and comes out
believing that this entitles them to a well-paying job. No one pauses to ask
whether they have the requisite skills sought by potential employers.
Uganda’s does not have a problem of unemployment. Our people
lack the right skills. There is no one with skills, right work ethic and
attitude that can increase a company’s bottom-line who can fail to find a job.
In fact companies in Uganda are looking for skilled people and they cannot find
them. Our companies are importing people from Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa and
India. How can a country importing labour be suffering from mass unemployment?
It is because educated Ugandans believe that one gets a job on the basis of a degree
certificate rather than acquisition of skills that are marketable to the
companies in our midst.
This brings me to the third point on the effects of the
welfare state ideology to the economic transformation we desire. Economic
growth cannot be a product of central planning by the state. This is because
the knowledge necessary to allocate resources appropriately to serve our wants
and needs cannot be centralised. I am inclined to agree with Frederick Von
Hayek that to realise the transformation we want, we must always as far as
possible seek to rely onspontaneous forces in society i.e. the actions of
multitudes of individuals in the marketplace.
The welfare state ideology insists that growth comes from
the actions of benevolent individuals in the state largely acting out of
kindness and good natured-ness. It is an ideology whose extreme was socialism
and communism. And we all know this led to economic ruin. Yet this ideology has
remained dominant even in Western capitalist societies in spite of its debilitating
effects on many social groups in those countries.
At least rich nations can afford to subsidise those of their
citizens who are poor, even though it hurts the beneficiaries of state
largesse. But Africa is far too poor to embrace this ideology. It creates very
high but unrealistic expectations. When unmet, unrealistic expectations cause
social frustrations. In Uganda’s case, this welfare state ideology has
cultivated an entitlement mentality in large sections of otherwise productive
youths that they should the state owes them jobs even when they don’t have
marketable skills.
This mentality is worsened by ambitious politicians. Voters
want to be told what they want to hear. Hence politicians are incentivised to
perpetuate the myth that the state will provide everyone everywhere with
everything.
amwenda@independent.co.ug
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