The Poor Laws

David Reisman ()
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David Reisman: Nanyang Technological University

Chapter Chapter 5 in Thomas Robert Malthus, 2018, pp 97-113 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The Poor Laws since 1601 had provided parish relief to paupers. Malthus, believing that hand-outs encouraged earlier marriage and larger families, recommended that all welfare save for grants to the irremediably destitute should be abolished. He denied that there was a right to welfare or that welfare formed part of the social contract. While benevolence was a moral absolute, it was expanding the population, putting pressure on limited food and creating the misery it was intended to contain. The hidden curriculum was that the abolition of income-maintenance would teach the values of self-reliance, prudence, assiduity and moral restraint which would confer economic as well as social benefits.

Keywords: Poor laws; Institutional reform; Welfare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:gtechp:978-3-030-01956-3_5

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-01956-3_5

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