Il welfare come bene comune: estrazione di valore, prospettive di finanziarizzazione e autodifesa della società = Welfare services as commons: value extraction, perspectives of financialization and self-defence of society

Abstract

Welfare services as commons: value extraction, perspectives of financialization and self-defence of society. This paper seeks to integrate the economic and legal concept of "commons", to propose an interpretation of welfare services as common goods. Only by recovering a conception of welfare as a common good, in fact, it is possible to set aside its further marketization. After describing the value-extraction capacity of economic actors in the various service provision models, we describe the last frontier of value extraction from this sector: the advent of “impact investing”, particularly in the form of the Social Impact Bond. The theme of financialization of the economy has been explored from various perspectives in recent years, but little is still said about the financialization of the welfare. The spread of forms of impact investing – alongside the phenomena of household consumption of advanced financial products (financialization of daily life) – can accelerate the shift from an universalistic public-funded welfare to a particularistic, extremely marketized one. In this scenario the no-profit sector is called upon to play an important role as an innovative service provider. Then, finally we argue that, only the no-profit sector, if supported by an aware and active citizenship, could be the bearer of the deep sense of “welfare as a common good”: if it is not fascinated by the promises of impacts investing, it can constitute the last bastion to defend a truly universalistic and solidaristic welfare.