>>> who eschew work (or even worse commit crime) Wait, what? Equating criminals should be punished with some people are more deserving than others is not the

>>> who eschew work (or even worse commit crime) Wait, what? Equating criminals should be punished with some people are more deserving than others is not the point - the deserving poor was a kid victorian justification for selectively providing assistance to a (conveniently limited) number of people while letting the majority of poor rot away in plain sight. It was a means of ignoring the systemic issues that created and sustained grinding poverty - and is IMO something we are doing still - the underclass has shrunk, yes, we have lifted many people out of overfly in the West, but prisons are populated mostly with men with poor backgrounds, educational low attainment, mental health issues and drug problems - waaaaay too out of proportion to be confidence, thus making those issues part of the modern day systemic faikures that mean some of our fellow citizens have the odds stacked against them.