Long-Term Perspectives on Social Changes and Issues in Social Insurance

장기적 관점에서 본 사회변화와 사회보험의 과제

This paper investigates the long-term social changes and the emerging issues in social insurance that such changes will entail, It does not attempt to resolve the conflict between neo-liberal reforms and neo-corporalist reforms. Nor does it confine itself to proposing the options to secure the financial stability of social insurance schemes. The aim of this paper lies in anticipating various problems that result from social development, analyzing the impacts of these problems on social insurance schemes, and delineating the solutions to these problems. This paper is comprised of three parts. First, it describes the expected long-term changes in society and the ensuing problems. Second, it asks whether these problems can be solved with increased public expenditures. For this purpose, an analysis of the trend in the expenditures by welfare states is attempted. Third, it summarizes the issues in social insurance and presents the possible solutions to the problems. In the chapter that deals with social changes and social problems, various aspects are reviewed, including the globalization process, the development of It industries, the uncertainty in the classification of incomes, the widening gap in earnings due to the bio-economy, and the relation between social insurance schemes and the tax system. It is concluded that there are limits to the role that increased public expenditures can play to solve the social problems. This paper argues for a structural change in the social insurance system. In every social insurance scheme, the state should foe-us its effect on the provision of basic protection against social risks for the whole population. At the same time, the state should improve the financial stability of the scheme and avoid large-scale deficits.