The dividing line between federal social insurance programs and state-governed public assistance became increasingly meaningful in this period. At a time when the government was assuming full social responsibility for standard male workers and their dependents, public assistance claimants were relegated to an older tradition of private (albeit state-enforced) family obligations. When single mothers, the blind, the disabled, the mentally ill, or the indigent claimed public assistance, state welfare departments were authorized to investigate and enforce private family obligations before disbursing any public funds. An adult child could be brought to court to pay for an elderly parent’s nursing home costs; aunts and uncles held accountable for the costs of housing and educating a blind relative; and parents forced to contribute to the care of an insane child. In some states, the welfare department could claim retrospective compensation for benefits paid or seize the estate of a deceased claimant to reimburse the public purse.

Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, loc. 221