Human Services \"Spend and Share\" vs. \"Sink

Human Services

"Spend and Share" vs. "Sink or Swim" Attitudes

In understanding the differences between the "spend and share" public mood of the 1960s and the "sink or swim" attitudes of the 1990s, four distinct reasons for the change in public opinion can be listed. Canadians in the 1990s witnessed a great call for change and shift toward the sink or swim mentality, and this can be largely attributed to: issues of national identity, anxiety over jobs, the emerging of the global economy, and new technologies and fundamentally different demographic forces rapidly changing these Canadians' respective social space (Reid, 1996, p.5).

Making Election Decisions as a Voter

In making the decision to vote in an election or abstain from the vote, certain factors such as the candidates' own stances on the issues as well as the views held by these candidates' respective parties play a major role in people's decisions to vote. Social policy attempts to address political issues such as income support for the destitute and poor, abortion, treatment for substance abuse, and other contentious issues, which often rallies voters with aligning belief and value-systems to get to the polls in order to elect officials who most closely represent their own beliefs (McKenzie and Wharf, 2010, p. 1). In such instances, both candidate and party alignments play a massive role in making the decision to vote, and can sway a voter from choosing one candidate over another. For example, Voter A supports a woman's right to procure an abortion. Party A and its candidates largely support the right to abortion. Candidate A, running as a Party A contender has mixed feelings on the subject and often sides against abortion. Despite the abortion issues, Voter A aligns himself with many of the platforms upon which Candidate A runs, but finds the abortion issue to be a prevalent issue in deciding who to vote for. Candidate B, on the other hand -- also running as a Party A Candidate, doesn't hold all the same values as that of Candidate A, but supports abortion. This facet of Candidate B's platform causes Voter A to shift his way and cast a vote for this candidate in the polls.

II. Demographic Trends in Human Services

In understanding the trajectory that the field of human services provision is currently on, one can identify three key demographic trends that will likely affect the field in the upcoming 10-20 years. Additionally, such trends will likely call for corresponding policy responses to deal with the changes that are brought about. Throughout the Canadian provinces, family, household, and census trends continue to show that: more young adults aged 20-29 are living in the parental home; higher proportions of children aged 4 and under are living with mothers in their forties; and an increasing proportion of children aged 14 and under live with common-law parents (Milan, Vezina and Wells, 2006, p.17-18). Such changes will prove to need necessary policy additions, especially in viewing the distribution of funding needed to deal with each growing demographic.