Elite discourse on social welfare: Why we should expect Policymakers to take a lesson in Poverty 101
One of the threads that runs through elite discourse on social welfare is an anxiety about the laziness of the poor. Much of the focus of such discourse is on equating social welfare policies with laziness, with the implicit suggestion that somehow policies of social welfare that provide for the very basic capacities of life such as access to health care and a minimal standard of living would prompt the poor to become lazy, to become dependent on the limited taxpayer resources and on the state. Also, carrying an almost moral thread, this line of thinking suggests that social welfare programs should not breed immoral behaviour among the poor, manifest in laziness, lack of work ethic, alcoholism, unsafe sex etc. The cautionary tale therefore regales us with a moral warning about the potential moral hazards of social welfare. Yet, most of our research on the culture-centered approach to health communication with communities living at the very margins suggests that such elite discou