By Hong Seong-woo
According to Romanyshyn, social welfare means common social responsibilities such as financial aid and services for the underprivileged and common responsibilities for satisfying the basic desires of the nation's people. In modern society, most states intend to create a welfare society to improve life for everyone.
In general, building a welfare state is basically meant to liberate people from poverty, disease and disasters, that is, to satisfy fundamental needs. Directly, its goals are to detect and solve conflicts of capitalism after the Industrial Revolution, such as urban housing problems, the collapse and disintegration of families, unemployment, poverty, and the maintenance of a level of sanitation that had not existed prior to the Industrial Revolution.
I think alienation is another factor that needs to be considered in successful fulfillment of social welfare goals. We have found that it plays a significant role in various current social problems. It impedes the sound growth of personal and social well-being, which is not only misery for individuals but also a primary factor that threatens maintenance and the development of society. Therefore, alienation is one problem that must be addressed through practical activity, more precisely, social welfare.
There are two welfare policies being enforced in modern states: the social security system and social welfare policy. While it is a bit passive to insist that a minimum income be provided for the poor to sustain themselves, this is a more active way through which the general public can lead happy lives. Institutionally, there are various social forms of insurance, public subsidies and social welfare services, though I doubt their practical effects.
Still, we have a large number of people who need state-level aid. Let me take an example of one boy who lives with his grandmother and elder sister. His parents live away because of domestic problems. The primary concern caused by this collapsed family is, of course, the financial problems the boy is faced with because his parents do not support him and his sister.
Other than this, there are possibly secondary problems like lack of opportunity for education, or isolation from companionship, and other sorts of unfairness. However, the government has officially, not helped the boy since his parents are alive and have a certain level of income. Not only this boy, but also a lot of people in need of social welfare benefits can be found everywhere.
The government also seems to know these dire circumstances, but I think that selecting these needy people by using certain valid criteria might be almost impossible. To improve this situation, private organizational functions seem necessary. Private organizations, which can appreciate each local and individual condition better than the government, can realize the aforementioned welfare policies more effectively and efficiently. General non-governmental organizations such as civil organizations or religious associations can work with financial independence, but they also have limitations without government support.
Accordingly, efforts to connect private and governmental organizations are seriously required. One church in Deacheon, Chungcheongnamdo has carried out a welfare service for the local community in the name of a corporation aggregate named `Seonhan yeeut', which is hard for the government to implement.
In fact, this charity organization has administered such good deeds as dispensing free heating briquettes to the underprivileged through `Briquette Bank,' delivering free lunch to the poor and the elderly, helping undernourished pupils, and serving free meals. This charity organization has looked out for the needy, but neglected people in every nook and cranny of our society.
In our social studies classes, we have learned productive welfare as an alternative of the limitation of state welfare. It seems to focus on raising efficiency and boosting social welfare beneficiaries' will to work. But what are the fundamental limits of a welfare state? In other words, to facilitate social welfare policies, what should be taken into consideration first of all? In my point of view, what a welfare society should do to implement its welfare policies is to not connect production and welfare but give actual benefits to underprivileged people in all societal strata. We have to keep that in mind, otherwise it might be that welfare policies become the proverbial ``water off a duck's back.''
Hong Seong-woo is senior at Affiliated High School With Korea National University of Education in Norht Chungcheong Province.