There is no more evident alternative to poverty than an income. Nothing, on the other hand, is so firmly accepted by most Americans as the damaging effect of money on the poor. We are at our most righteously compassionate in our concern for what unearned income will do to the unfortunate. And we perceive a practical danger as well as a moral one: the poor may prefer money from public sources to work, and that will cultivate a mood of dependence that will strike at the vital heart of the economic system.
This danger is seen as peculiar to the underprivileged; for the affluent and the rich, idleness, called leisure, is not similarly deplored. On the contrary, the society is enhanced by having a leisure class. Those who are accomplished in the enjoyment of leisure are admired, not condemned; they have learned how to live the good life. They contribute as patrons to the artistic or literary distinction of the nation; they set examples of style and personal behavior, which are praised, even celebrated, for novelty, variety and extravagance. No one, or not many, criticize their indulgence.
The position of the poor is very different. Here, as noted, unearned income is thought both morally and socially damaging, and so especially is the idleness that it may allow. This income and idleness are not forgiven even if it is clear that there is no employment opportunity available as an alternative. What is praised for the affluent is severely condemned for the poor.
The tendency of economics - and other social sciences - to adjust to the need and mood of the more fortunate, articulate and politically influential members of the community has been sufficiently noticed. It is powerfully evident here. There was much to be said for the Poverty Program of the 1960s for its contribution to the Great Society, as that description came into use. Missing, however, was the guarantee that no American would be allowed to live in an intolerable state of poverty - that, as was the case in other industrial countries, there would be a reliable safety net below which no one would be allowed to fall.