Ideological arguments for change

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Thomas Malthus

  • economist
  • focused on the study of the population
  • he argued that population had an inbuilt propensity to rise and outstrip all available food supplies
  • he favoured the aboliation of the poor law altogether
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David Ricardo

  • polticla economist
  • put forward the idea of an iron law of wages, believing that there was a wages fund from which money for wages and poor relief was paid
  • the more that was paid out in poor relief, the less there was available for wages
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Thomas Paine

  • criticised the poor law because it was so inadequate
  • he proposed a proerty tax on the very rich to be used for a variety of support systems for the poor, among these being family allowances and old age pensions
  • implied that the able-bodied poor had to go into workhouses before they could recieve relief
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Robert Owen

  • radical factory owner
  • blamed the capitalist economic system for creating poverty and the abuse of the factory system
  • tried to put new ideas into practice by building a new sort of community
  • no adult was allowed to work for more than 10 and a half hours a day and sick pay was provided
  • the harder they worked, the greater their income would be, and they would have no need for poor relief
  • care would only need to be taken of the impotent poor
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