social safety net

(noun)

A set of governmental programs, entitlements, or benefits providing citizens and residents with a minimum level of financial protection, food, access to public infrastructure, or medical services.

Related Terms

Examples of social safety net in the following topics:

  • Uniting Competing Factions Within the Party

    • The Democratic Party is most associated with a liberal attitude toward politics that emphasizes a more active government role in regulating the economy, ensuring equality, and providing a social safety net.

  • Poverty

    • "Life chances" is a term used to describe someone's access to marketplace resources—essentially, how likely it is in their environment that they might be able to find employment or have a social safety net.
    • The term for a person's ability to change their economic status in a society is known as "social mobility. "
    • If there is a high level of social mobility, it is relatively easy for people to leave poverty.
    • Easy access to higher education and prevalence of well-paying jobs contribute to social mobility.

  • Socially Constructed Interpretations of Aging

    • While aging, itself, is a bio-social process, the ways people and cultures interpret ages (e.g., "old," "young," "mid-life") and the ways these interpretations are distinguished by varied biological age markers vary dramatically.
    • In societies where lifespans are relatively short (e.g., Chad) or in areas within a given society where violence and / or other means of "early" death are common, one could be considered "old" or "middle-aged" by her mid-twenties, whereas in countries and social settings with longer lifespans (e.g., Japan) and lower levels of "early" death, mid-twenties is still considered young-adulthood.
    • The activities that are expected of one at different ages is also socially constructed and relative to culture.
    • For instance, retirement only became a "universal" American ideal in the post-World War I era, as the growth of Social Security and private pensions dramatically expanded the safety net available to aging workers who were leaving the labor market.

  • Relief and Conservation Programs

    • At that time, the federal government provided no safety net: there was no unemployment insurance, no Social Security, and no welfare.
    • The New Deal included some of the first national welfare programs, including Social Security, passed in August of 1935 and still in operation today.
    • The Social Security Act was an attempt to create a safety net against economic dangers such as old age, poverty, and unemployment.

  • The New Deal

    • There was no national safety net, no public unemployment insurance, and no Social Security.
    • It also marked the beginning of complex social programs and the growing power of labor unions.

  • Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

    • People lacking food, love, esteem, or safety would consider food to be their greatest need.
    • Once physical needs are satisfied, individual safety takes precedence.
    • Safety and Security needs include:
    • Humans need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance, whether it comes from a large social group, such as clubs, religious groups, professional organizations, gangs, family, or mentors.
    • Without these connections, many people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, and clinical depression.

  • Profit Margin

    • Net profit is the gross profit minus all other expenses.
    • The gross profit margin calculation uses gross profit and the net profit margin calculation uses net profit .
    • It is difficult to accurately compare the net profit ratio for different entities.
    • A low profit margin indicates a low margin of safety.
    • The percentage of net profit (gross profit minus all other expenses) earned on a company's sales.

  • Applicable Legislation

    • Social legislation: Marketers' activities are affected by broad social legislation, like the civil rights laws, programs to reduce unemployment, and legislation that affects the environment (e.g. water and air pollution).
    • For example, utilities in Oregon can spend only ½ per cent of their net income on advertising.
    • Federal agencies like the US Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Product Safety concern themselves with all facets of business.
    • The courts are increasingly holding sellers responsible for the safety of their products.
    • Liability can even result if a court or a jury decides that a product's design, construction, or operating instructions and safety warnings make the product unreasonably dangerous to use.

  • The Budgeting Process

    • In the short-run, tax revenues have declined significantly due to a severe recession and tax policy choices, while expenditures have expanded for wars, unemployment insurance and other safety net spending.
    • Social Security spending increased versus 2011 while Defense, Medicare and Medicaid spending fell.
    • Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid expenditures are funded by more permanent Congressional appropriations and so are considered mandatory spending.
    • Mandatory spending accounted for 57.4% of total federal outlays in FY2012, with net interest payments accounting for an additional 6.3%.
    • Discretionary budget authority is established annually by Congress, as opposed to mandatory spending that is required by laws that span multiple years, such as Social Security or Medicare.

  • Deficit Spending, the Public Debt, and Policy Making

    • Government deficit, on the other hand, refers to a situation when the government's expenses, including its purchases of goods and services, its transfers (grants) to individuals and corporations, and its net interest payments, exceed its tax revenues.
    • Otherwise the debt issuance can increase the level of (i) public debt, (ii) private sector net worth, (iii) debt service (interest payments) and (iv) interest rates.
    • In the United States, taxes are imposed on net income of individuals and corporations by the federal, most state, and some local governments.
    • Debt held by government accounts or intragovernmental debt includes non-marketable Treasury securities held in accounts administered by the federal government that are owed to program beneficiaries, such as the Social Security Trust Fund.
    • Economic growth offers the "win-win" scenario of higher employment, which increases tax revenue while reducing safety net expenditures for such things as unemployment compensation and food stamps.