Policy for the future of work

David Graeber

pp. 157-173

in: Robert Skidelsky, Nan Craig (eds), Work in the future, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020

Abstract

The future of technological unemployment predicted by J.M. Keynes has in fact come to pass—but that we have compensated for the lack of work by creating millions of unnecessary jobs with little purpose. The way our society thinks about work is contradictory: we see work as necessary for meaning and identity, yet many of us hate our jobs. The values we attach to paid employment have a long history, strongly influenced by Puritan traditions of thought. We should give people the ability to leave pointless jobs by decommodifying work through a universal basic income.