A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

� affordable access to essential social services, i.e. health, water, edu -
cation, food security, housing, and others.
Costing studies of the ILO in Africa and Asia clearly show that domestic
resources can be generated to cover the social protection floor programmes
and would cost no more than four per cent of the countries’
national income. 156 A key requisite to realize this, however, is the exercise
of the states’ political will and determination.
Progressive economists highlight the following steps:
� Putting in place an effective tax collection and administration system;
� Realigning social priorities by doing away with non-essential expenditures
such as capital outlay for the military and perks of state officials;
� Instituting progressive taxation programmes by shifting the tax burden
to the local elite and big corporations through, for instance, higher
corporate and income taxes and VAT on non-essential goods; and,
� Embarking on a debt moratorium and cancellation of illegitimate
debts. Debt servicing has significantly contributed to budget deficits and
depressed rate of growth. These debt payments can be channelled to
social and ecological programmes. 157
But while the UN and ILO’s social protection floor is an outstanding initiative,
it remains a policy of targeting and does not go beyond poverty
reduction and its ultimate elimination. Activists should, however, capitalize
on it, taking it as an opportunity to develop a broader and more
transformative concept of social protection. 158
156 Bachelet, Michelle, Social Protection Floor for a Fair and Inclusive Globalization,
Report of the Advisory Group chaired by Michelle Bachelet, convened by the ILO with
the collaboration of the WHO, Geneva, 2011.
157 Mestrum, Francine, Universal Social Protection and Innovative Financing: Exploring
Links, Paris, UNRISD and Pax Romana Conference, October 2012.
158 Yi, Ilcheong, Building ASEAN Peoples’ Unity, Framework and People-Centered Alternatives
Towards Life of Dignity for All: Why Transformative Social Protection?,
Jakarta, ASEAN People’s Forum, 4 MAY 2011.
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