Hayek, welfarism, and the deserving poor
Bengtsson, Ingemar LU
and Rauhut, Daniel
LU
(2021)
- Abstract
- Hayek sees poverty in its absolute sense as a factual problem, which the society has an obligation to deal with. Relative poverty, on the other hand, is not a problem with which the state should be concerned. Hayek approves the use of redistribution to decrease absolute poverty. However, redistribution of income for the sake of greater material equality would necessarily imply unequal treatment of men. This means that individuals will be used to fulfill the aims of other individuals; they will not be free. To Hayek, this is inacceptable. Other than the helping of the deserving poor to overcome poverty in its absolute sense, Hayek did not write much on poverty. The explanation for that is that Hayek viewed the problem of poverty mostly as a... (More)
- Hayek sees poverty in its absolute sense as a factual problem, which the society has an obligation to deal with. Relative poverty, on the other hand, is not a problem with which the state should be concerned. Hayek approves the use of redistribution to decrease absolute poverty. However, redistribution of income for the sake of greater material equality would necessarily imply unequal treatment of men. This means that individuals will be used to fulfill the aims of other individuals; they will not be free. To Hayek, this is inacceptable. Other than the helping of the deserving poor to overcome poverty in its absolute sense, Hayek did not write much on poverty. The explanation for that is that Hayek viewed the problem of poverty mostly as a problem of the absence of prosperity. To Hayek, there is only one way to abolish poverty in the long run, and it is to make the society generally prosperous. A prosperous society is a society in continuous progress where all knowledge is put to its best use. Only in a free society, where the reward for supplying a good or service corresponds to the value it has to other individuals, will all knowledge come to use. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/680286b3-88e1-4a3e-8e53-c47c9506d5ac
- author
- Bengtsson, Ingemar
LU
and Rauhut, Daniel
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021-05-03
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Poverty, Hayek, Economic Theory, Poverty, Welfare, Justice
- host publication
- Poverty in Contemporary Economic Thought
- editor
- Lundahl, Mats ; Rauhut, Daniel and Hatti, Neelambar
- edition
- 1
- pages
- 12 pages
- publisher
- Routledge
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85104772728
- ISBN
- 9780429331312
- 9780367354268
- DOI
- 10.4324/9780429331312-2
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 680286b3-88e1-4a3e-8e53-c47c9506d5ac
- date added to LUP
- 2021-03-26 15:40:13
- date last changed
- 2024-06-01 07:53:03
@inbook{680286b3-88e1-4a3e-8e53-c47c9506d5ac,
abstract = {{Hayek sees poverty in its absolute sense as a factual problem, which the society has an obligation to deal with. Relative poverty, on the other hand, is not a problem with which the state should be concerned. Hayek approves the use of redistribution to decrease absolute poverty. However, redistribution of income for the sake of greater material equality would necessarily imply unequal treatment of men. This means that individuals will be used to fulfill the aims of other individuals; they will not be free. To Hayek, this is inacceptable. Other than the helping of the deserving poor to overcome poverty in its absolute sense, Hayek did not write much on poverty. The explanation for that is that Hayek viewed the problem of poverty mostly as a problem of the absence of prosperity. To Hayek, there is only one way to abolish poverty in the long run, and it is to make the society generally prosperous. A prosperous society is a society in continuous progress where all knowledge is put to its best use. Only in a free society, where the reward for supplying a good or service corresponds to the value it has to other individuals, will all knowledge come to use.}},
author = {{Bengtsson, Ingemar and Rauhut, Daniel}},
booktitle = {{Poverty in Contemporary Economic Thought}},
editor = {{Lundahl, Mats and Rauhut, Daniel and Hatti, Neelambar}},
isbn = {{9780429331312}},
keywords = {{Poverty; Hayek; Economic Theory; Poverty; Welfare; Justice}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{05}},
publisher = {{Routledge}},
title = {{Hayek, welfarism, and the deserving poor}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780429331312-2}},
doi = {{10.4324/9780429331312-2}},
year = {{2021}},
}