William Beveridge
William Beveridge
William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge KCBwas a British economist, noted progressive and social reformer. He is best known for his 1942 report Social Insurance and Allied Serviceswhich served as the basis for the post-World War II welfare state put in place by the Labour government elected in 1945. He was considered an authority on unemployment insurance from early in his career, served under Winston Churchill on the Board of Trade as Director of the newly created labour exchanges and...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionEconomist
Date of Birth5 March 1879
There is no inherent mechanism in our present system which can with certainty prevent competitive sectional bargaining for wages from setting up a vicious spiral of rising prices under full employment.
Want is one only of five giants on the road of reconstruction; the others are Disease, Ignorance, Squalor, and Idleness.
The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of the common man.
The State, in organizing security should not stifle incentive, opportunity, responsibility; in establishing a national minimum, it should leave room and encouragement for voluntary action by each individual to provide more than that minimum for himself and his family.
Ignorance is an evil weed, which dictators may cultivate among their dupes, but which no democracy can afford among its citizens.
Unemployment is like a headache or a high temperature - unpleasant and exhausting but not carrying in itself any explanation of its cause.
The state is or can be master of money, but in a free society it is master of very little else.