Frank Field, the minister for welfare reform, is thought to favour this.

ECONOMIST: Pensions

Councils have urged the public not to blame them for carrying out what they have dubbed "extreme and ill thought-out" welfare reforms.

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In the early 1960s, less than 10% of Americans thought the country spent too much on welfare.

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An old but creaking system of consensus, the lingering loyalty of bosses and employees to an unaffordable social-welfare model, and a web of constitutional checks and balances designed to prevent even the most fleeting thought of another tyranny, have all made it extraordinarily hard to carry out reform in Germany.

ECONOMIST: Drowning in troubles | The

"The realization that there is a relationship between employee welfare and productivity is actually not new, " says Daniel A. Wren, author of Evolution of Management Thought.

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