Guy Standing - Humans, Labour and Technology
”Never before has debt become a systemic part of the economy - it's a system working to increase debt for you and me” We want to revolt, but we don’t know how, Guy explains in an inspiring talk about the new social class: the precariat. So-called because of its precarious situation in-and-out of employment – it has now replaced the proletariat as the new, potentially revolutionary, class. It is born out of the global market system, which our increasingly liberal and populist leaders has set up as the most unfree system ever – paradoxically, in the name of freedom. A small elite are profiteering on rents and debts, and they want you to go further into debt. What characterizes the new class is not only that they have to work for labour, but that they lack any occupational identity. The man or woman who can no longer say ”I am…” could be likened to a person climbing up a razorblade. A new income distribution system is not only necessary – it’s a matter of social justice.
