The reform I propose, both in child protection and in wider social services, comes with a high return on investment in the long-term. (You can get a sneak peek at what I write about that in the book ‘The Trauma Root of Social Work: Beyond the Trauma Wall’ here: https://florencekoenderink.substack.com/p/return-on-investment-of-breaking) However, like all reform, in the short-term, investment is required for capacity building and service development. This will reliably raise an outcry of ‘it is impossible’, ‘where would we find the money?’ etc. This is understandable under the current attitude to the economy that seems to see people as a drain, which the economy needs to be protected from, and corporations and ultra-rich individuals as benefactors that must be protected and supported.
Challenging this attitude is a kind of radical reform in its own right. It is one that makes a lot of sense and creates a lot of financial room in national budgets due to its high return on investment that starts the moment action is taken based on the reversal of this belief. It is a hard sell, though, to propose taxing big business and the rich. Even though they currently, although they are in higher tax brackets, tend – in practice – to pay a tax rate considerably lower than those in the lowest tax bracket.
Continue reading “But How Will We Pay for It?”