Books and reports: Poverty and Benefit Dependency 1 July 2001, David Green	View PDF
Dr David Green, in his book Poverty and Benefit Dependency, undertakes two main tasks. First, he examines the claims of those who analyse recent social changes using concepts such as poverty and social exclusion. He points out that reaching valid conclusions about trends in poverty is no simple matter. Measures of poverty based on a percentage of median income are unsatisfactory. Expenditure better reflects people's standards of living, but more accurate still is a consumption measure that includes government-provided goods and services. Dr Green goes on to argue that a more fundamental objection to many studies of poverty is that they divert attention from the more serious underlying problem - that of welfare dependency and the attitudes it reflects, not least the diminution of personal responsibility. Poverty and Benefit Dependency looks at the poverty debate from an historical and international perspective, including recent welfare reforms in New Zealand and the United States. The author concludes that the claims of many poverty lobbies are not valid and that the key issue for policy is how society can best assist its least fortunate members without causing welfare dependency. He outlines approaches to overcoming the dependency problem.