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Full-Text Articles in Law
Taxing Family Work: Aid For Affluent Husband Care, Martha T. Mccluskey
Taxing Family Work: Aid For Affluent Husband Care, Martha T. Mccluskey
Journal Articles
The income of the classic breadwinner married to a homemaker receives a tax advantage under federal income tax law. The conventional wisdom holds that any resulting inequities to unmarried persons or dual-earning marriages cannot be corrected without producing similarly problematic inequities. This Article challenges that dilemma by analyzing the inequity of the marital tax system from a new perspective. This Article argues that the perceived "bonus" for breadwinner-homemaker marriages is best understood as an implicit policy of "aid for affluent husband care." Recent tax reforms (up for renewal in 2010) that partly reduced the "marriagep enalty "for some dualearning couples …
Efficiency And Social Citizenship: Challenging The Neoliberal Attack On The Welfare State, Martha T. Mccluskey
Efficiency And Social Citizenship: Challenging The Neoliberal Attack On The Welfare State, Martha T. Mccluskey
Journal Articles
In the face of rising economic inequality and shrinking welfare protections, some scholars recently have revived interest in T.H. Marshall's theory of "social citizenship." That theory places economic rights alongside political and civil rights as fundamental to public well-being. But this social citizenship ideal stands against the prevailing neoliberal ("free market") ideology, which asserts that state abstention from economic protection generates societal well-being. Using the examples of AFDC and workers' compensation in the 1990s, I analyze how arguments about economic efficiency have worked to characterize social welfare programs as producers of public vice rather than public virtue. A close examination …