Economic inequality, social policy and a good society

Nat O'Connor

Local Economy, 2018, vol. 33, issue 6, 583-600

Abstract: The economic discourse on bringing about a fairer or more equal society has thus tended to focus heavily on increasing the cash income of disadvantaged households, while lessening the focus on non-cash economic benefits derived from social policies. The dominance of cash in the economic inequality discourse leads inexorably to (perhaps well-intentioned) policies to reduce personal taxation for lower income households and to increase their cash incomes, including the recently popular idea of an unconditional Universal Basic Income. This paper argues that innovative direct solutions to the provision of various goods and services by alternative means tend to be squeezed out of the current discourse about economic inequality. Through analysis of the Minimum Essential Standard of Living, an argument is made that a more sophisticated social policy discourse is needed to tackle disparities in people’s material conditions, beyond a focus on cash income, in order to bring about the foundational conditions for a good society even in the context of low economic growth and/or fiscal austerity.

Keywords: economic inequality; good society; income inequality; poverty; public services; social wage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:loceco:v:33:y:2018:i:6:p:583-600

DOI: 10.1177/0269094218802987

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