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Why did paid work become the only thing Britain really values?
Ellie Mae O’Hagan has written a very good article on the Guardian’s Comment if Free section, titled, “Why did paid work become the only thing Britain really values?” which I think is worth a read, particularly in light of conversations and conventions that take place on welfare reforms.
The level of value we place upon paid work has often baffled me. I’ve never understood why it is so readily championed as the route to dignity, self-worth and financial security when for so many people, work is undignified, demoralising and underpaid. It’s strange that when David Cameron boasted that his party backs the “workers” over the “shirkers”, he failed to initiate a conversation about the reality of working life for most of the population.
Critics of the government talk frequently about the flaws in plans for getting people into work: from workfare being labelled contemporary slave labour, to benefit sanctions being unrealistic and inhumane. But the wider social implications of these plans are rarely discussed. We are yet to address the fact that a cocktail of work programmes and benefit sanctions creates a culture in which the only respectable option becomes paid work – any paid work.
The whole article is here Why did paid work become the only thing Britain really values?
Yes, I read that article. I think she is hinting at something like this.
I can’t understand why she can’t understand why work is s**t but we live in a society which promotes it as the only valid form of activity for those without capital….
The social relations have to be reproduced.
Is this a value theory discussion group or aren’t we supposed to be doing welfare rights work as the only valid form of activity ourselves?
I half expected to see one of those italicised disclosures at the bottom of the piece.
Ellie Mae O’Hagan has a 7 figure trust fund. She is in the 6th year of a BA in social policy at Oxbridge, and is an unpaid journalism intern
For more on the work ethic.