Disadvantage

What should governments do to help the disadvantaged in society? Yet even this presupposes the more fundamental question of who are the disadvantaged?

Part of the project is to come to understanding of disadvantage, and the ways in which life can go badly. The ‘capability view’ advocates that there are roughly ten major categories of functioning, and that the good life is one which involves representation from all of these categories. These include life, bodily health (often interpreted as access to healthcare) bodily integrity- not being subject to attack on leaving the house- sense, imagination, thought, (linked to education), autonomy, control over environment (including political power), and perhaps, somewhat controversially, leisure time.

As an extension, risk and vulnerability are relevant. It matters not simply what an individual is capable of in the short term but what can be sustained over the future. Take
two people- both on the same income- where one has a permanent job, and the other although earning similar wages, has no job security, and cannot safely assume he will have work in the near future. The fact that employment is insecure with the latter means one is clearly disadvantaged relative to the other. The consequence could be insecurity, opting to undertake significant risks, or not engaging fully- i.e. not being willing to start a family, or take out a mortgage- for fear of breaking the bank in the absence of a reliable income. So the thesis depends on fact that you are disadvantaged when you are forced to take risks.

It has been estimated that the best way to evaluate the problem is to use a sporting analogy; that of decathlon scoring, where the average disadvantage is measured over ten events. Definitively, the loser will be the one who is worst-off. Visible traits may include being unemployed, bad health, poor homes, extreme poverty, all of which will lead to being near the bottom however the weighting takes place.

Government has a duty to create atmosphere in which disadvantage can be improved. The aim is to neutralise, or where possible remove disadvantaged clusters to create an environment brimming with equality of opportunity. Success is achieved when there is no correlation between the decathlon events- and where different people come out top in different disciplines, making them all roughly equal. And where disadvantage no longer clusters this is the ultimate mark of success.

In addition to the disadvantaged clusters, privileged clusters are prevalent with similar ramifications. Accordingly those who have good jobs will also have good health, good homes, and good holidays.

The way to improve the situation is to eliminate the so-called corrosive disadvantages. This is when a single detriment leads to another, for example when a lack of affiliation to a community lends itself to poor health, because there may not be anyone to look after the ageing individual. Not quite the opposite but, fertile functions are when possession leads to good effects, such as literacy helps finding a well-paid job which in turn pays for other necessities such as education or healthcare.

There is cause for optimism because recently, the conservative perspective has been more amenable to interfering to address the problem. Now, there is a consensual starting point for social intervention.