Nothing is quite as unsettling as realizing that the vision you have for your future is a fantasy. And in our society, with so much designation of worth reserved for the employed, reminders that the employment landscape is not very rosy can really shake our confidence in the system.
I think that discontent is the foundation of making the change our broken system needs. That’s why I love this article on Al Jazeera English writer Sarah Kendzior. My favorite section of the elegant writing is the following:
We live in the tunnel at the end of the light.
If you are 35 or younger – and quite often, older – the advice of the old economy does not apply to you. You live in the post-employment economy, where corporations have decided not to pay people. Profits are still high. The money is still there. But not for you. You will work without a raise, benefits, or job security. Survival is now a laudable aspiration.
She makes this case based on trends of increasing conversion of former permanent full-time work to lower pay and lower security work. The trend is most visible in the adjunctification of higher education, but is pervasive throughout the American economy.
Please read the article, and get angry. We can only change this sort of problem when we stop internalizing the economy’s failures and call for something better.