SOCIO-ECONOMIC POLICY OF UKRAINE: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

Abstract

The article defines the priorities of the social policy of Ukraine at the present stage. The socio-economic problems of Ukraine are analyzed, their causes and solutions are identified. It is shown that the main reason for the failures of the socio-economic policy of independent Ukraine is the uncritical attitude of Ukrainian reformers to the consequences of neoliberal policies in other countries, as a result of which foreign experience of socio-economic reforms began to be introduced without taking into account domestic specifics. The decline in the role of the state in socio-economic policy, the increase in the role of private business, the privatization of "everything and everyone" led to a sharp social stratification, an economic crisis, which became a trigger for crises in all spheres of Ukrainian society. One of the fundamental principles of neoliberal economics, deregulation, has also collapsed. It turned out that the market is not efficient in areas in which the business cannot make quick and large profits. The so-called "market failures" demonstrated the need for state regulation in the spheres of education, health care, ecology, etc. Conclusions of the study and prospects for further research in this direction. Thus, if the new government really wants to build a successful country of happy people, it must make social and economic policy its top priority. Its primary tasks at the present stage should be: reduction of tariffs for utilities by eliminating from them the corruption component and excess profits of suppliers; revision of the principles of granting subsidies for utility bills. Exclusion from the number of subsidies of those who do not need state aid, but have a formal right to receive it (they work unofficially); the fight against the shadow economy, with the concealment of income from taxation; reforming the system of wages and pensions; creation of jobs with decent wages; establishing interaction between the state and private business in order to increase the social responsibility of the latter.