Assets and the Poor: New American Welfare Policy

ISBN-13: 9781563240669 / Angielski / Miękka / 1992 / 344 str.

Michael Sherraden; Neil Gilbert

Opis

This work proposes a new approach to welfare: a social policy that goes beyond simple income maintenance to foster individual initiative and self-sufficiency. It argues for an asset-based policy that would create a system of saving incentives through individual development accounts (IDAs) for specific purposes, such as college education, homeownership, self-employment and retirement security. In this way, low-income Americans could gain the same opportunities that middle- and upper-income citizens have to plan ahead, set aside savings and invest in a more secure future.

Spis treści

Tables and Figures Foreword Neil Gilbert Preface and Acknowledgements Part I: Maintenance: Welfare as Income 1. The Failure of Welfare Policy as a Failure of National Vision 2. Income Distribution and Income Poverty 3. The State of Welfare Theory 4. Federal Welfare Policy—Who Benefits? 5. The Welfare Reform Debate Part II: Development: Welfare as Assets 6. The Nature and Distribution of Assets 7. Inheritance of Asset Inequality 8. Toward a Theory of Welfare Based on Assets 9. The Design of Asset-Based Welfare Policy 10. Individual Development Accounts 11. Examples, Proposals, Costs 12. The Integration of Welfare Policy with Economic Goals of the Nation 13. Summary and Conclusion Selected References Index

O autorze

Michael Sherraden, Neil Gilbert