היינו כחוסכים: פרדוקס ההכללה בתוכניות בניית נכסים

Over the past few decades, significant changes have taken place in the structure and operations of the welfare state. One of these changes is the growing emphasis on the idea of “social investment”, which seeks to develop the human capital of people in marginalized communities and provide access to market-based services and tools. Asset-building has become a key strategy for alleviating inter generational poverty that reflects the logic of social investment. Building on the concept of the “paradox of inclusion”, this article examines whether and how policies that aim to include low-income families in asset accumulation do so in ways that risk reinforcing their exclusion. Drawing on primary and secondary sources, the article presents three ways in which the paradox of inclusion is evident in asset-building programs: teaching families to save even under challenging circumstances; accumulating negligible amounts of savings which serve as a barrier to effective inclusion; and encouraging families to pursue the risky venture of home ownership. The article draws on the concept of “radical incrementalism” to make sense of the paradoxical implications of the asset-building approach for economically marginalized populations.