Well-Being, Capability and Public Policy

Abstract

The view that poverty is simply shortage of income is fairly well estab lished in the literature on the subject. It is not a silly view, since income properly defined has an enormous influence on what we can or cannot do. The inadequacy of income is often the major cause of deprivations that we standardly associate with poverty, including starvation and famines. In studying poverty, there is an excellent argument for beginning with whatever information we have on the distribution of incomes, particularly low real in comes1. There is, however, an equally good case for not ending with income analysis only, or even with the somewhat more general but stili very limited base of resource information2. Rawls's (1971, 1993) classic analysis of primary goods provides a broader picture of resources that people need no matter what their respec tive ends are; this includes income but also other general-purpose means. Dworkin (1981, 1985) provides a different and in some ways even more ex tensive account of resources. But, as Granaglia's (1994) and Balestrino's (1994) analyses show, a resource-oriented view is inescapably limited in characterizing different persons' respective advantages. Income or resources are no more than means to the freedom to lead

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