The U.S. can afford a social safety net, but our current programs are not sustainable, even in a robustly growing economy.
And China is spending more as it tries to build a social safety net for an aging population that has none.
And finally, government has also provided a social safety net to guarantee a basic level of security for all our citizens.
Voters set priorities, among them defence, infrastructure and a social safety net.
Although such payments may be justified as part of a social safety net, rewarding non-work and penalizing productive effort reduces jobs and economic activity.
The aging population requires better medical care and a social safety net, something China still lacks in comparison to wealthier Asian nations like Japan.
China needs those jobs because it needs to tax workers to help pay for a social safety net it wants to create for its aging population.
But the Republicans have a strange conception of the American Dream that makes no room for a social safety net to even the playing field and support the most vulnerable among us.
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The Indonesian government has begun to tackle such important issues as privatization of state enterprises, establishment of a social safety net, the restructuring of the corporate and banking sectors, and bankruptcy reform.
Without fiscal temperance, as well as education reform and a better regulatory environment, there will neither be the opportunity for social mobility nor resources for a social safety net, public or private.
The British government is spending as much as it ever has in history, and the poor in Britain have access to a social safety net that is remarkably generous by any standard.
On this first trip, there was much they would never see a rowdy free press, a social safety net forged by political wrangling but, mile by mile, they were quietly discovering how to see it at all.
Mr. Peitersen, running an office with 36 creative staffers, said he has learned to appreciate go-getters, especially in a place like Denmark, where a social safety net and generous unemployment benefits shield many young people from the harsh realities of business.
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I, for one, would be curious to hear what Ann Romney might have to say about work-family issues like paid family leave or sick days, or what Michelle Obama thinks of the role of government in providing a social safety net.
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But when asked to name his top three priorities, he does not miss a beat: anti-corruption laws, a social safety net for people who are "slipping through the cracks", and incentives for growth - including tax breaks - to help small businesses.
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In a 2010 post he writes about the tension between immigration and the social safety net, but again this does not apply to high skilled immigrants who make a stronger social safety net more affordable.
The best answer may be more extensive worker re-training, combined with a wider social safety net.
The unions want the government to protect jobs and improve provisions for a social safety-net.
The new policies mostly worked eventually, once they were backed by a social safety-net.
The Chinese government understands the challenges and is taking steps to establish a stronger social safety net.
Some poor countries, particularly those with excess household saving, could do with a better social safety net.
Spending will also increase because of the need to provide a social safety-net for a greying society.
But liberals see universal health coverage as the crown jewel in a completed social safety net, one that was well worth spending time and political capital on.
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The DPJ promised more welfare spending and a better social safety net, but has struggled to deliver amid the economic downturn and 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The government is finding it hard to raise the money to provide a social safety-net, let alone retraining programmes or schemes to help the unemployed get new jobs.
Whether poor, rich or somewhere in-between, China will certainly need to spend some money to provide a basic social safety net for its people, not just the old but everyone.
These assurances, coupled with a stronger social safety net and employment provisions (see article), may help lift some of the deflationary fog that has lain heavy over Japan for so long.
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If the government creates a stronger social safety net for its citizens, Chinese workers will feel less pressure to save for health emergencies, unemployment and retirement, and more likely to buy goods and services -- and create a mature consumer-driven economy.
South Korea is merely a middle-income country, with only a minimal social safety net to offer its own people, let alone abject North Koreans, who are perhaps 15 times poorer than their southern counterparts (whereas East Germans were two or three times poorer than West Germans at the time of unification).
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