Suspicious Minds in Basic Income and in Conditional Cash Transfers

GARCÍA VALVERDE, FACUNDO

Glasgow

Congreso; 2021 BIEN Basic Income Earth Network Congress; 2021

Citizen?s Basic Income Network Scotland

Anti-povertypolicies and attitudes of distrust toward the needy share a long history. Fromthe narratives of de Quevedo?s El Buscón,in which beggars are presented as able-bodied individuals making a concertedeffort to take advantage of others, to the invasive physical tests and?workhouses? that were part of the English Poor Laws, the poor have long been regardedas deserving careful oversight. Although in increasingly subtle ways, thishistory continues as part of a popular set of policies in Latin America called ?ConditionalCash Transfers,? which make income support conditional on certain behavioralchanges. This paper argues that this resumption in recent times is normativelyproblematic because it harms the beneficiaries? self-esteem, leading tostereotypes and sociological errors that reproduce social hierarchies. Alternatively,the paper advances a comparative defense of Basic Income on the basis of its lesser-knownaffinity with non-discriminatory attitudes.