所谓社会福利制度是西方资本主义国家普遍推行的一项重要的社会经济政策。对于这种政策,应如何估价,人们有不少议论。最近几年,由于经济衰退,欧美各国又开始大规模砍削福利项目,不少国家已陷入要“砍”福利而又不能“砍”的进退维谷的窘境,有的甚至引起了政局的动荡。这究竟是怎么回事?西方国家的社会福利制度,虽然推行有先有后,名目有多有少,但基本原则和实质是一样的。因此,下文就以美国的社会福利制度为例,对西方国家的社会福利制度的由来和福利的内容、实质及前景作一简要的介绍和分析。斗争的产物 1929—1933年,美国爆发了空前严重的经济危机,各主要经济部门陷于瘫痪,失业人数一直保持在1,300万到1,700万之间,几乎占当时工人总数的一半。整个危机期间,工人罢工持续不断。所有的罢工 The so-called social welfare system is an important social and economic policy universally implemented by western capitalist countries. How to value this policy, people have a lot of arguments. In recent years, due to the economic downturn, the United States and Europe have begun to cut their welfare items on a large scale. Many countries have fallen into the dilemma of “cutting off” their benefits and can not “cut down”. Some even caused political turmoil. What exactly is going on? The social welfare system in the western countries, although prevalently followed, has more or less the same name, but the basic principles are the same. Therefore, the following section takes the social welfare system in the United States as an example to briefly introduce and analyze the content, essence and prospects of the social welfare system in Western countries. The War Produced 1929-1933, the United States was hit by an unprecedented economic crisis. All major economic sectors were paralyzed. The number of unemployed remained at between 13 and 17 million, accounting for almost half of the total number of workers at that time. Workers’ strikes continued throughout the crisis. All strikes