We live in an age of extreme inequality, when a wealthy minority of the global population lives in historical luxury even as middle-class people fear for the future and twenty percent of the world struggles with chronic poverty. Social policy has failed to find answers to this crisis, and we are beginning to see powerful calls for a new way of thinking about how to escape it. This book argues that we need to start by reframing the whole question, starting not with poverty as a problem to be solved, but with our vision of a good society as a goal to be achieved. That frees us up to consider bold, forward-looking social policies that can have a far-reaching impact. The proposals here are based on a research program carried out by the Webb Memorial Trust that included population surveys of more than twelve thousand people. The way forward, we see, is to increase people's sense of agency in building the society they want.
