 Conceptual thinking about throffers is practically applied in considerations of conditional aid , such as is used in workfare systems . For philosopher and political theorist Gertrude Ezorsky , the denial of welfare when subjects refuse work is the epitome of a throffer . Conditional welfare is also labelled a throffer by political philosopher Robert Goodin . In the words of Daniel Shapiro , also a political philosopher , the offer aspect of workfare is seen in the " benefits one receives if one learns new skills , gets a job , alters destructive behaviors and the like " , while the threat aspect is executed with " the elimination or reduction of aid , if the person does not , after a certain period of time , accept the offer " . For Goodin , the moral questionability of the threat aspect of a throffer is generally mitigated by the attractiveness of the offer aspect . In this way , workfare can represent a " genuine " throffer , but only when a person receiving welfare payments does not need the payments to survive , and so possesses a genuine choice as to whether to accept the throffer . When , however , an individual would be unable to survive if he or she stopped receiving welfare payments , there is no genuine choice ; the individual is , for Goodin , unable to refuse the throffer . This cancels out the morally mitigating factor usually possessed by a throffer . This is presented as an argument against workfare , and Goodin anticipates that advocates would respond paternalistically by claiming that , regardless of issues of freedom , the individual in question would benefit from taking part in the work or education offered . 
