Poverty and Equality

Abstract

This review essay questions whether the recent focus on moral virtue in poverty reform is true to the history and values of our democracy. Joel Schwartz's FIGHTING POVERTY WITH VIRTUE: MORAL REFORM AND AMERICA'S URBAN POOR (Indiana University Press, 2000) reminds us that current reform welfare efforts, designed to encourage self-virtue, have strong origins. However, while Schwartz describes much of the war on poverty as a historical detour, his account forgets the and conceptual role that equality plays in our democrat system. For example, the heroic efforts of Mary Jones, as described in Elliott J. Gorn's MOTHER JONES: THE MOST DANGEROUS WOMAN IN AMERICA (Hill & Wang, 2001), was inspired by a commitment to the belief that inequality represents a failure of American democracy. Present focus on questions of poverty may more closely track Schwartz's account than Mother Jones', but Mother Jones' vision of the call of American democracy challenges us to aspire not to forget about equality.