Neoliberals pushed a return to the hated family means-test

Evidence

The neoliberals sought to return to the time prior to the British economist William Beveridge’s proposal, which influenced the introduction of the welfare state, to provide social insurance ‘as of right and without means test’. The neoliberals harked back to the household means-test, which was one of the most hated aspects of the poverty-relief of the 1930s. Like the Ford Company’s intrusive paternalism, the family means-test had subjected relief recipients to invasive and humiliating investigations of their finances and savings. Continuing a history of deterrence that had characterised poor relief since the Poor Law of 1834, the means-test treated accepting relief as a matter of social disgrace. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 215

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s work on austerity and human-rights discourse: the means-test as deterrence logic mirrors current debates on welfare conditionality. — connects to: The family sat at the center of nearly every neoliberal policy campaign — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 246; Decades of neoliberal reform reinstated the family as first-line welfare provider — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 260; Neoliberals attacked welfare as a threat to family, race, and dignity — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 178 (+3 more)
• DEFINE: Explains the household means-test and its lineage from the 1834 Poor Law as a deterrence device.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberals attacked welfare as a threat to family, race, and dignity #expands (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 178
• Neoliberal welfare attacks racialized dependency and framed the family as women’s natural sphere #expands (0.80) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 175
• Neoliberals opposed no-fault divorce to force families to absorb social costs #expands (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 241
• Meritocratic racelessness discourse accompanied the neoliberal retreat from the welfare state #expands (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1739