A Poverty of Imagination: Bootstrap Capitalism, Sequel to Welfare Reform.

• Author: Sosulski, Marya
• Position: Brief Article

A Poverty of Imagination: Bootstrap Capitalism, Sequel to Welfare Reform By David Stoesz University of Wisconsin. 256 pages. $19.95 (paper).

David Stoesz's A Poverty of Imagination constitutes an unfortunate and fairly unimaginative suggestion to remedy poverty and America's distaste for welfare. Stoesz is an ex-welfare caseworker, a commentator on social welfare policy, and the author of a textbook for social work students. The lesson this time, however, may be that recycling some social theories, including "bootstrap capitalism," is no solution at all.

His suggestions for eliminating poverty through capitalism using wage supplements, asset building, and community capitalism don't ring true. They're not necessarily bad ideas, but they are every bit as unrealistic as he claims the idea of a social safety net to be. He neglects to demonstrate where the money to pay for his scheme will come from, and he fails to provide a convincing argument for why big business would allow this kind of competition to succeed...