ABSTRACT
I have come to believe that income is an insufficient basis for welfare policy. Income is only one measure of poverty, a measure that ignores the long-term dynamics of household well-being. The traditional approach to poverty analysis, counting income and who has it, has not led to meaningful change, nor is it likely to lead to meaningful change in the future. Income-based policy proposals sound familiar and tepid, and inspire little confidence. They are inadequate because the underlying vision, the foundation of the proposals, is itself inadequate. In my view, the current discontent with welfare policy results from an inadequate definition of household well-being, an inadequate understanding of how well-being is achieved, and a failure to integrate social policy with the broad goals and purposes of the nation.
