Creating Our Common Wealth

Creating Our Common Wealth, published by Jon B. Gilmour and Ian McEwan, is the third book in the Human Services series. The authors had previously written The Wounded Healer and A History of the World's Emperors. They managed to keep their readers engaged and entertained throughout The Human Services series. In Creating Our Common Wealth, the role of government is once again the theme, and the notion of providing social services for individuals with developmental disabilities was also addressed. I must say, I found the treatment of disabled people in that book a little lacking in creativity, but then again, I am an American.

The United States is one of the most generous societies in the world, and this is apparent in the fact that we have a lot of elderly people and disabled people who do not require constant healthcare or assistance, but are capable of living a relatively normal and healthy life on their own. In Creating Our Common Wealth, Gilmour and McEwan highlight some of the problems with this, saying that many people who suffer from developmental disabilities end up being institutionalized. For instance, they could be severely depressed and unable to find appropriate outlets for their anger.

The social services systems in the United States, as well as those of other developed countries, are designed to quickly identify potential threats to the safety of vulnerable people. However, as Jon points out, there is still an ongoing problem of identifying and treating people according to individual needs. Another major criticism of this book is its assumption that people with developmental disabilities are lazy and need to be socially penalized. This, as far as I can tell, is not a criticism of the book per se, but more of a generalization of the social services perspective. It is my opinion, however, that people with development disabilities should be accorded the same opportunities as everyone else, including social services agencies. It is true that social services are somewhat prohibited from assisting the self-care of disabled people, but the reality is that these services are under tremendous pressure to perform, and if they fail to provide assistance for the most vulnerable in society, they can be held accountable.

In Creating Our Common Wealth, disability rights advocate, Miguel Hidalgo advocates a kind of social service that is more proactive in its design. Rather than attempting to provide a refuge for people with developmental disabilities, Hidalgo argues, such organizations should be encouraged to look at the whole person and to provide opportunities that allow people with disabilities to develop the skills and the confidence to become active participants in society. This is not a theoretical construct; it is a practical understanding of how we as a society can help people with developmental disabilities to become real parts of our common wealth. By recognizing the importance of helping the person has become, and taking care to equip him or her with the resources he or she needs, we can empower this person with his or her real potential to contribute to our common well-being.

The argument put forth by Hidalgo and Atkins is not simply an attack on social services or government programs designed to assist people living with disabilities. Social security programs, for example, have helped a great deal in the development of medical technology, and the medical community has responded by investing heavily in research aimed at finding better methods of treating and preventing many of the diseases that kill thousands of people each year. There are more doctors now than ever before, and people are getting better treatment than ever before. In creating Our Common Wealth, Hidalgo and Atkins point out that this same kind of investment would greatly benefit disabled individuals as well.

The concept of creating Our Common Wealth is not meant to be a finger pointing critique of the current federal programs designed to help people with disabilities. Rather, it's intended to show how these programs could be made more effective. Through careful planning and implementation, these programs can serve to improve the lives and health of all of us, and do so while creating greater economic opportunity for everyone. In effect, by helping disabled individuals and other disadvantaged groups to realize their full potential, we can help solve the very problems that cause them to live in circumstances that are characterized by poverty and lack of opportunity.

Creating Our Common Wealth by Robert Atkins and Gordon Gekko does a great job at presenting the case for creating a more equitable distribution of wealth in our society. Although this book certainly does not offer a solution to the problems faced by people who are afflicted with one or more forms of disabilities, it does offer some very practical suggestions on how we might go about making this country a more progressive place. For example, creating Our Common Wealth would make great sense if we understood what was at stake. It makes sense that creating wealth should come from investments in the productive sectors of our society - not from the defacto interests of those who benefit from the status quo. Creating Our Common Wealth provides a realistic and comprehensive explanation of how these different interests are being served, and how any effort to create a more equitable distribution of wealth is going to affect everyone in the end.

This book should be required reading for everyone. It helps us understand how the current policies and programs designed to help those with disabilities are not only inefficient but also tend to disadvantage us, creating a wealth of opportunities for those who can better afford them. Also, it makes us understand how creating a more just system for distribution of resources is not only possible, but is the only way forward. The disabled will only be able to thrive when there is an investment in them, and creating Our Common Wealth offers a lucid explanation of how such investment can help create a more just and equitable America.