Sur le paupérisme (Memoir on Pauperism), by Alexis de Tocqueville

This book contains 2 essays Tocqueville presented to the Royal Academic Society in Cherbourg in 1835 & 1838.  Both are about poverty and the pros and cons of various measures undertaken to alleviate it.

In the first part, Tocqueville outlines the paradox of the wealthier, more prosperous nations (e.g. Great Britain) having much larger percentages of their populations claiming poverty and getting on the dole than poorer nations have (such as France and Spain).  He talks about the Poor Laws (basically an early government welfare program), which originated under Elizabeth I after Henry VIII destroyed the monasteries and seized their property, leaving the English poor without recourse, charitable works having once been one of the functions of the Church.  By Elizabeth I's time, the problem was so bad that the Poor Laws were passed, which made it the responsibility of each town council to tax their residents to support the poor in that town.  Tocqueville outlines the corrupting effects of these laws both on the poor and on those who are taxed to support them. He sat as an observer in a court of a British justice of the peace, where these poverty cases were heard, and his observations are as logical and as prescient as those in <i>Democracy in America</i>.

The second part is about the advantages and disadvantages of the French <i>caisse d'épargne</i>, a sort of special savings bank reserved for the poor.  It pays a higher interest rate than normal and it is meant to teach the poor to practice thrift and acquire habits of capital accumulation.  Tocqueville gives a very clear explanation how this institution works and his thoughts about it such that even a non-economist like me found it easy to follow.

I highly recommend this slim little book to anyone interested in the problem of poverty and the ways in which various solutions to the problem that look good on the surface can make it worse.

Update 8/22/16: In order to make this book more accessible to English speakers, as well as to practice my language skills, I decided to start translating this book into English and post it online in blog form.  You can access it <a href="http://tocquevillememoironpauperism.blogspot.com/2016/08/first-memoir-on-pauperism-first-part.html">here</a>.  It is not finished yet, but I plan to post a part of it every day until I get through!