Ethics and economics of poor relief

Abstract

What is the basis of the claim of the poor to relief at the cost of the well-to-do members of the community ? What is the extent of those claims, that is to say, what measure of relief are the poor warranted in claiming ? In what way does the nature of these claims indicate the manner in which the obligations of the community towards the poor among its members are to be discharged? Discussing these questions we shall obtain a general view of a problem which present-day conditions have made urgent, and we may be able to reach some conclusions which will assist us in appraising the findings of the Commission and realising more fully their significance. To begin with the first question I have suggested, it must be counted remarkable that we find in the literature of Political Philosophy, so few attempts at a reasoned account of the State's duties to the poor. It seems to be taken for granted? at least by the modern writers who have recognised such duties ?that the State has an obvious obligation to relieve needy members of the community in their distress. But what, we may ask, is the basis of this obligation ?