Pensions on the Kibbutz: The Implications of the Undermining of Social Security for the Aged in Communal Societies

A central characteristic of welfare states is the existence of social security arrangements in those societies.Regardless of their nature or extent, all welfare states have a variety of programs aimed at providing citizens with the means to overcome the economic and social distress caused by the stoppage or substantial reduction of earnings resulting from sickness, maternity, employment injury, unemployment, invalidity, old age and death (ILO, 1984).The importance of these programs is not only that they actually provide people with the means to overcome economic difficulties during times of need, but also that they enable citizens who are healthy and able to provide for themselves with peace of mind, secure in the knowledge that if, and when, the need arises, the social security programs will provide them with adequate benefits (Lerner, 1964).William Beveridge, the person most identified with the welfare state, described programs providing protection against the reduction of income due to old age and retirement as the most important social security programs (Beveridge, 1942, p. 90).This is due primarily to the many needs of the ever growing elderly population in welfare states and the higher life expectancy of the citizens of these countries.Social security programs for the elderly must provide more people with benefits for longer periods than any other social security program.Thus, while a mother (or father) of a recently born child will require benefits for a period of months until being able to return to work, a retired worker will require, an adequate level of income from social security for one, two or even more decades.Consequently, European Community nations devote more than nine percent of their gross domestic product to expenditure on the elderly, nearly twice the