Social welfare policy and 'the unemployed': a case study in the ideology of individualism

Abstract

This paper is part of a larger project concerned with individualism as an ideology central to the social relations of male domination. In this paper I look at some of the Australian government's policy changes relating to unemployment benefit since the late 1980s. I argue that these changes ignore what is actually going on in the capitalist global economy, and instead, target 'the unemployed' as though they were personally responsible for rising levels of unemployment. I also argue that these changes demonstrate a callous indifference to people's needs, in favour of harassing, coercing and penalising capitalism's chief victims. I conclude by pointing out the links between the inhumane treatment of the unemployed and the inhumanity at the heart of male supemacist relations of ruling.