Introduction
Guy Standing deconstructs the modern labor market by introducing the concept of the precariat. This is not merely a group of impoverished individuals, but a new, global social class living in chronic uncertainty. This article analyzes how the financial system transforms citizens into denizens—residents deprived of full rights. You will learn why traditional measures of growth mask social regression, how artificial intelligence drives precarization, and why universal basic income is becoming a requirement for basic fairness and systemic stability.
Work vs. Labor: The Market Reduction of Human Activity
Standing distinguishes between work—broad creative and care-based activity—and labor, which refers to subordinated, income-generating tasks. The modern market hierarchy divides society into seven classes. At the top sits the plutocracy, followed by the salariat with its dwindling privileges, and the proficians—freelancers who, despite high skills, fall into the trap of self-exploitation. Elżbieta Mączyńska emphasizes that the fetishization of GDP masks the fact that this growth is often built on the exploitation of these groups.
A system without basic income is logically unstable. Under financial capitalism, market mechanisms inevitably push individuals toward precarity. Without a "safety floor," every job loss turns a citizen into a petitioner dependent on the arbitrary decisions of bureaucracy.
Denizen Status: The Precariat Loses Civil Rights
The precariat are modern-day denizens. They possess formal citizenship, but the systemic "unbundling" of rights makes their status conditional. The gig economy and marketing cleverly monetize this uncertainty, selling the lack of security as "freedom" and flexibility. This phenomenon takes various forms: from the kafala system in the Gulf states to massive student debt in the US and the erosion of the welfare state in the European Union.
The development of artificial intelligence intensifies these processes by automating management and breaking work down into atomic micro-tasks. AI is becoming a tool for "turbocharging" precarization, where algorithms control labor in real-time, making human effort entirely interchangeable and devoid of identity.
Basic Income: The Foundation of Security and Freedom
Standing’s key solution is universal basic income, which decouples existence from the dictates of the market. This should be accompanied by democratic wealth funds that redistribute profits from capital and technology. The chronic uncertainty of the precariat poses a real risk to business: it stifles demand, destroys innovation, and fuels populism, which threatens market stability.
Critics argue that the precariat is a politically inconsistent entity that is too internally diverse. Nevertheless, without institutional courage—including the decommodification of education and the regulation of algorithms—societies will drift toward authoritarianism. Only by restoring work to a sphere of dignity can the process of degrading citizenship be halted.
Conclusion
In a world where algorithms decide individual fates and citizenship becomes a luxury, the question of the future of work takes on a new dimension. Will we be able to regain control over technology and create a system where work is a source of fulfillment rather than just a tool for survival? Without a fundamental reconfiguration of the relationship between capital and labor, everyone—including the salariat and proficians—will gradually become denizens of our own world, inhabiting an economy whose logic we do not help shape.
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