Pauperism is an old term to describe the state of being a pauper, a very poor person who cannot fend for themselves. What is the cause of pauperism – what makes the poor? Sickness can do that or lack of work. Sometimes it is the case of poor decisions, sometimes poor luck. But what about government or charitable programs? Could they be a source of the pauperization of the poor? Today we would call such worries “dependency on welfare” and perhaps no other issue in the poverty world is as contentious.
A vision of pauperism from 1882
A book entitled the A Handbook of Charity Organization published in 1882 opened the introduction with this [i]:
“There is scarcely any one of the great problems affecting the public good which has taken as strong a hold upon the national mind of Europe, or indeed upon the minds of the more intelligent portion of our people, as the question of the prevention of the pauperization of the poor”.
“It is a question which has been discussed in almost every civilized country in the world. Statesmen, clergymen, and philanthropists have approached the problem from various sides. It has been studied theoretically; it has been handled practically; it has occupied the attention of legislative bodies; it has been made the subject of platform oratory; and it has forced its way into the daily press, the reviews, and the magazines. It has been experimented upon by devoted men and devoted women in the crowded city and in the secluded hamlet. It a word, it has been, for years past, one of the leading questions of the day.”
Indeed. That was in 1882 and we have spent an additional 140 years since it was written trying to answer the question. We introduced the federal government to the poverty fight with an elaborate and expensive welfare system. We went through the great depression of the 1930s, the great society of the 1960s, welfare reform in the 1990s, various state programs and experiments, and the creation of thousands of charities. Presidents and congresses year after year have grappled with the problem. Throughout the poverty rate, or pauperism has remained flat.
Are we making people poor?
Does our welfare system create paupers? It is a question that has haunted us for a long time. Perhaps though, the same book that alerted us to the problem 135 years ago has an outline of the solution. The handbook said this about the English relief system existing at the time [ii]:
“…. that by making no attempt to distinguish between the deserving and the undeserving, no attempt to discover and remove the causes of distress, it was actually corrupting the morals and swallowing up the resources of the country.”
Ouch. That could be a description of our welfare system today. We don’t work with the poor on the “causes of distress’ such as addiction, mental illness, work ethic, or education. Instead, the welfare system is simply designed to distribute resources to those who are poor. The recipient is merely a name and address; there is no personal development involved. That isn’t working to solve poverty. Pauperism may be a very old term but it’s a very modern problem. To address it we need to reexamine the purpose of welfare.
[i] Stephen Humphreys Gurteen. A Handbook on Charity Organization. Published by the author, 1882. Republished by Bibliolife, LLC. Introduction.
[ii] Ibid. Page 24.