Dearest gentlemen, I have today an important topic to discuss. I follow the real estate scene here in Canada as well as in China (because China has the largest real estate bubble in the world that dwarfs the big one we have here at home), with one article after another coming out about young people not being able to afford a property here. Meanwhile, I know many couples who gave up even on townhouses and bought tiny condos. But now, on top of that, rent is going sky high everywhere, with 1 bedroom and a den around Yonge and Bloor going up as high as $2,600 per month. I wondered for a while as to who can afford this, and realized not many of my friends can. Then, I had a paradigm shift; I started wondering how many well-educated, skilled, talented and determined people cannot rent or buy here, or at least not without full-time jobs plus side gigs plus sacrifice. Something dawned on me then. I asked my history buffs if there ever was a time period like this one where so many educated, talented and qualified people had no means or security in Canada. The answer, basically, was that this has never happened before. Well, it turns out these people form a brand new class present in most Western countries, and is a direct result of the damaging effects of neoliberalism around the world, as I'm told.
They are called the precariat class.
Here's who they are, what they're about, and why every country (including Canada) has to do something about them before it's too late.
According to a 2015 Globe and Mail article, the precariat class includes "the growing mass of Canadians who are in precarious work, precarious housing and hold precarious citizenship: the perpetual part-timers, the minimum-wagers, the temporary foreign workers, the grey-market domestics paid in cash, the young Canadians who will never have secure employment, the techno-impoverished whose piecemeal work has no office and no end, the seniors who struggle with dwindling benefits, the indigenous people who are kept outside, the single mothers without support, the cash labourers who have no savings, the generation for whom a pension and a retirement is neither available nor desired." So, here we have an entire class of people who will never have security, never have peace in their lives, and may end up going from office straight to the coffin (at a discount funeral home)- no retirement. They are below the salaried middle class, and their lives are marked by anxiety, alienation and anger. According to the same article, the number of these people may reach as high as 40 percent of the Canadian population! While the job market does whatever it wants, social solidarity and institutions meant to uphold this and other related values are losing the battle.
The greatest problem, however, may be that this kind of life is forcing millions of people to lose dignity and their personal and cultural identities. When you cannot securely stand on your own two feet, you need to take on new traits and throw away others on a whim, just to satisfy somebody in hopes of a little more stability and safety in your life. When the precariat exhibits these weaknesses, the members of other classes sense it and can ask unreasonable things that no confident, established and proud person would ever do. If this continues, the precariat class will be pushed in a corner. Then, like a wild animal, it'll push back in a kill or be killed type of scenario.
Currently, I am not a part of the precariat class, and have not been a part of it in a long time. But, knowing what it was like back then and what it's like for many of my friends right now, I have to say that the issues they are facing are huge, and that no political party is seriously addressing the plight of this class here. I even had to spend quite a bit of time searching online to even find the term precariat, as it seems thoroughly swept uner the rug and known by only the highly educated social science, political science and other such experts. But, I sensed something is wrong around us and that it's big enough to have a name.
Bottom line, I don't think the precariat class should even exist. I think the gig economy should either be killed off or understood as no replacement for full time, stable employment. In addition, I believe that not every member of the precariat class should be forced to start a business because they have no access to decent jobs- not everyone is an entrepreneur and not everyone should be. Finally, if businesses were forced to increase the number of full-time jobs, and welfare rates went up, depending on who you are in the precariat class you would either go on higher welfare and carefully look for a proper job without worry and humiliation, or you would get a full-time job with benefits and happily move on in life.
Remember the word precariat. It's bound to come up in daily conversation soon enough.
They are called the precariat class.
Here's who they are, what they're about, and why every country (including Canada) has to do something about them before it's too late.
According to a 2015 Globe and Mail article, the precariat class includes "the growing mass of Canadians who are in precarious work, precarious housing and hold precarious citizenship: the perpetual part-timers, the minimum-wagers, the temporary foreign workers, the grey-market domestics paid in cash, the young Canadians who will never have secure employment, the techno-impoverished whose piecemeal work has no office and no end, the seniors who struggle with dwindling benefits, the indigenous people who are kept outside, the single mothers without support, the cash labourers who have no savings, the generation for whom a pension and a retirement is neither available nor desired." So, here we have an entire class of people who will never have security, never have peace in their lives, and may end up going from office straight to the coffin (at a discount funeral home)- no retirement. They are below the salaried middle class, and their lives are marked by anxiety, alienation and anger. According to the same article, the number of these people may reach as high as 40 percent of the Canadian population! While the job market does whatever it wants, social solidarity and institutions meant to uphold this and other related values are losing the battle.
The greatest problem, however, may be that this kind of life is forcing millions of people to lose dignity and their personal and cultural identities. When you cannot securely stand on your own two feet, you need to take on new traits and throw away others on a whim, just to satisfy somebody in hopes of a little more stability and safety in your life. When the precariat exhibits these weaknesses, the members of other classes sense it and can ask unreasonable things that no confident, established and proud person would ever do. If this continues, the precariat class will be pushed in a corner. Then, like a wild animal, it'll push back in a kill or be killed type of scenario.
Currently, I am not a part of the precariat class, and have not been a part of it in a long time. But, knowing what it was like back then and what it's like for many of my friends right now, I have to say that the issues they are facing are huge, and that no political party is seriously addressing the plight of this class here. I even had to spend quite a bit of time searching online to even find the term precariat, as it seems thoroughly swept uner the rug and known by only the highly educated social science, political science and other such experts. But, I sensed something is wrong around us and that it's big enough to have a name.
Bottom line, I don't think the precariat class should even exist. I think the gig economy should either be killed off or understood as no replacement for full time, stable employment. In addition, I believe that not every member of the precariat class should be forced to start a business because they have no access to decent jobs- not everyone is an entrepreneur and not everyone should be. Finally, if businesses were forced to increase the number of full-time jobs, and welfare rates went up, depending on who you are in the precariat class you would either go on higher welfare and carefully look for a proper job without worry and humiliation, or you would get a full-time job with benefits and happily move on in life.
Remember the word precariat. It's bound to come up in daily conversation soon enough.