The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class SPECIAL COVID-19 EDITIONThis book presents the new Precariat – the rapidly growing number of people facing lives of insecurity, on zero hours contracts, moving in and out of jobs that give little meaning to their lives. The delivery driver who brings your packages, the uber driver who gets you to work, the security guard at the mall, the carer looking after our elderly...these are The Precariat. Guy Standing investigates this new and growing group, finding a frustrated and angry new underclass who are often ignored by politicians and economists. The rise of zero hours contracts, encouraged by fat cat corporations as risk-free employment, and by silicon valley as a way of outsourcing costs and responsibility, has been exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. At the same time, in its experience of lockdown, the western world is realizing the true value of these nurses, carers and key workers. The answer? The return of income security and meaningful work - the principles 20th century capitalism was built on. By making the fears and desires of the Precariat central to economic thinking, Standing shows how concepts like Basic Income are not just desirable but inevitable, and plots the way to a better future. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Why the Precariat is Growing | 31 |
Who Enters the Precariat? | 69 |
Migrants Victims Villains or Heroes? | 105 |
Labour Work and the Time Squeeze | 135 |
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Common terms and phrases
agencies anomie basic income become behaviour capital career cent china chindia Chinese citizens citizenship commodification companies contracts costs criminalised debt deliberative democracy demonised denizens earnings economic Economist employees employment security enterprise benefits entitlement euroMayday Facebook fear firms flexible labour foxconn globalisation groups growing growth hukou identity immigrants industrial industrialised inequality insecurity Japan labour force labour market leisure living long-term market society migrants million mobility neo-fascism neo-liberal occupational OECD old agers organisation paid pandemic panopticon part-time pension plutocracy political politicians populist precariat precariatised precarious precarity trap proficians proletariat recession rise salariat salaryman schemes sector share shift skills social democratic social income sousveillance status subsidies temporary jobs tertiary society today’s unemployed unions United Kingdom University wages women work-for-labour workers workfare workplace young youth