a plea for an overhaul of the social system

Book. Prevention is better than cure, as this book reminds us of the failure of our social system and proposes its overhaul. Bruno Palier, CNRS research director at the Center for European Studies at Sciences Po, and Clément Carbonnier, professor of economics at the University of Paris-VIII, defend a system that would rely on the education of the most vulnerable in order to better prepare for the demands of what they call the “cognitive capitalism”a system where only the most qualified employees can hope to find their place.

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The starting point of the book is the observation of the double impasse with which the current social system comes up. Having become difficult to finance, it is also unable to meet the “new social risks” : the long-term unemployment of the least educated, the precariousness of young people and single mothers working part-time. According to the authors, this failure is due to a neoliberal logic which would have pushed the public authorities to multiply reforms having for only compass the reduction of the public deficit rather than the transformation of the system.

Engage in a “quality revolution”

The solution ? Kill two birds with one stone by opting for policies capable of reconciling social protection and economic growth. Denouncing the French choice of low cost – the desire to focus on the production of goods and services ” low end ” -, they advocate better training of individuals to enable them to perform jobs that “pull the economy up”. The whole reflection of the book revolves around the concept of“social investment” : no longer a question of thinking of the financing of the social system as an expense but rather seeing it as an investment making it possible to cope with the “present and future challenges”.

The authors insist on the importance of registering this investment “in people’s life course”, starting from early childhood, through the development of a more inclusive education system, for example. This will allow the advent of a real “quality revolution” where skilled workers will be able to ensure better living conditions and will be integrated into a qualitative economy centered on innovation.

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In this book thought out with a lot of pedagogy – supporting comparison tables and graphs – the two researchers also see in this more global approach to social protection the means of envisaging inclusive and equitable growth. For finance such a transformation, they rely on a “reorientation of public expenditure”, and would like to reassure concerns about the cost of such a project: “ [celui-ci est] completely fundable if we really want to achieve a more prosperous and fairer society. The blockages are not technical or economic, they are political”.

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