Heroic Employers Vs Lazy Jobseekers - Cafe Rant

 

The state treats the precariat as necessary but as a group to be criticized, pitied, demonized, sanctioned or penalized in turn, not as a focus of social protection or betterment of well-being.
-Guy Standing, 'A Precariat Charter'

Before I get into this, just a quick reminder that I am actually going through a very hard time, experiencing violence and bullying at home (I live in a public housing block). I deal with it by getting out of the house as soon as I wake and not returning until I am exhausted enough to pass out. I do these posts on the fly, on the move and under extreme duress, so you'll have to excuse the rushed nature of both the text and audio.

I truly appreciate anyone who is prepared to hear what I have to say, especially considering the clunky format.

One thing I did forget to mention in my little rave here is that the job seekers we are speaking about have for the most part lost all their bargaining power and are coerced into accepting whatever wages and conditions are available.

I think it's important that we keep that in mind when we wonder why some job seekers behave the way they do.

It's also important to keep in mind that this kind of article usually alludes to getting tougher on "the shirkers". To that, I'd like to refer to a quote from Joe Soss, Richard C. Founding and Sandford F. Schram's 'Disciplining the Poor':

"Reformers claimed that tough new policies would move the poor into the ranks of respected and engaged citizens. We show that nothing of the sort has occurred. Paternalist welfare policies do not advance civic and political incorporation or strengthen American democracy; they do the opposite."

You'll have to read the book if you want to see how they reached that conclusion. And before you say that this quote refers to America, the principle is the same.

So...the rant below is based on this article (unfortunately you need a subscription, but it is on the front page of today’s Australian [5/8/2019] if you want to avoid a subscription and pick up a hard copy somewhere):

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/job-snobs-are-leaving-bosses-in-the-lurch/news-story/a217a9d852e65cd3b833b2e347968e03

And here's my rant, thanks again for listening:

https://soundcloud.com/aetherian-nathaniel-roach/heroic-employers-vs-lazy-jobseekers