While programs of public works and community-�based employment have
provided some low-�wage labor, especially in recent years,21 it remains the
case that social payments flow chiefly to those caring for children (who
are mostly mothers and grandmothers), the el�der�ly, and the disabled.
With “able-Â�bodied men” still anachronistically presumed to be “workers,”
social protection continues to be implicitly styled as a sort of kindness
shown to those who are in some way diminished, a framing that brings
with it implications of incapacity, charity, and help for the helpless. These
long-�standing meanings attached to social payments contribute to the depoliticized
character of the system and may lead the receipt of “grants” to
be associated with feelings of shame and (especially for men, for whom
wage labor has been such a foundation of personhood—Â�see chapter 5) diminished
personal worth.