Having and Being Had

People in industrialized nations used to be called “citizens.” Now we are “consumers”—which means (according to the dictionary definition of “consume”) people who “use up,” “waste,” “destroy,” and “squander.”

While this balance between the side and the main gig can and does shift across different periods of capitalism, what is really significant to this moment is not just the amount of time spent on side gigs, or hustles, or second jobs, but that hobbies and interests are approached as something that could be or even should be monetised. This is the job

With the possibilities for long-term, secure, permanent and well-paid work decreasing, work creeps in several directions. We work harder at work. We work longer hours. At work, we are expected to use our emotions and personalities for the benefit of our employers. Outside of our official working hours, we are called upon to excavate more of our soc

Hence, let me rehearse what I demonstrated in systematic detail in chapter 5: there is only one fundamental definition of capitalism. Capitalism is a historical form of life in which wage labor is the foundation of social wealth. We live in a global capitalist world because all of us depend for our survival on the social wealth generated by wage la