LIVING WELL

It is hard to overstate the importance of ‘the job’ in our current political economy of growth. Elevated to the raison d’etre of most of our waking hours, not having one leads to great anxiety and the race to get one. Survival without a job seems simply impossible. In short, it often defines us and how others think about who we are: whether its ‘managing’ people’s money, harvesting crops or collecting the garbage. Those who hold power over us are often those who can hire or fire us, those who own or control the places where we work.

The promise of ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ has become the electoral chant of most of the political class. Whatever they may actually do, what they promise is jobs. The reality is often of poorly paid, temporary, part-time or non-existent work, but no matter, come the next electoral cycle the promise is renewed.

Jobs can overshadow every other value – mental and physical health, national independence, democracy, our increasingly threadbare environment