This was not solely a moral distinction: it owed a certain amount, too, to the economic
beliefs of the time, and Ricardo's 'iron law of wages', which suggested that poor relief might
undermine the wages of those who were working. But the condition of many independent
labourers was so bad that it was virtually impossible to make the circumstances of paupers
any worse, and the maintenance of 'less eligibility' came to depend in large part on moral
attitudes and the 'stigma' of pauperism.