I just had my first haircut in a year. Actually, it was my first haircut in 20 years as I stopped being “partially bald” and started having a “shaved head” in 2001.
We think of fundamental changes evolving slowly but as we look back there is a defining moment. I shaved my head in January 2001 to try it, and then shaving became a habit like a haircut.
We have heard about the shift to “work from home.” But it is unlikely that this will define the workplace over the next decades. However, there has been a fundamental workplace change that has evolved in the past 20 years but could be defined by a moment in 2009.
When I was a young man there were two career choices. You learned a skill—cooking, welding, or diesel mechanics, for example—became an apprentice and worked to become a master at your trade. The other choice was to continue your education to a “white collar skill” such as doctor, lawyer, or accountant. Either way, you did your 30 years, had a retirement party, and collected your pension.
Some went on to own the company, but most were—the 1930s Japanese term—“salarymen,” white-collar workers in the large bureaucracy of a business or government.
Artists, musicians, writers, and the like were outside of the mainstream work force. There was a mystique and envy of those who turned on the corporate world and gave up job security for job freedom.
With the 21st century came the formalization of the “gig” workplace. But in 2009 Uber was founded and changed the equation. People now seek the opportunity to “freelance” and make a few extra bucks on the side.
But that fundamental change created a new class of people that British economist Guy Standing called in his 2014 book, The Precariat. The term comes from “precarity,” meaning a risky existence, lacking predictability, and job security.
Uber “employees” and others started with “I have this cool new job that lets me work my own hours.” Then it was, “The Precariat class is the most deprived British class of all with low levels of economic, cultural and social capital.”
From “No boss” and “Immediate access to fun and flexibility” it goes to “No benefits; No paid nothing.” Like a child who wants ice cream at bedtime. But for some, like Standing, a “precariat” needs to be taken care of, and desires deserve to be provided by society. And by society he really means those that go to work every day. Standing wants a “universal income” so that certain people can work if and when they want to and still have all the benefits of a real job.
It is absolutely a fact that Big Business has taken advantage of the Precariat situation to lower labor costs and raise profits with the cooperation and encouragement of Big Government. Further, the unaffordability of health care, higher education, and local government has skyrocketed. But untouchable special interests depend on ever-higher costs to fund their increasingly rich future.
The elite Few created the Precariat for their own benefit and now want to “print money” and give it away as the solution to unaffordability. This solution only transfers the rising risk of systemic collapse to the entire economy. That is one reason, it seems, that the social fabric is unraveling before our eyes.
E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis provided by AAA Southeast Equities Inc.