Assets and the Poor
New American Welfare Policy
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Book Description
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.
Table of Contents
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