Work Futures Update | We Know We Are Being Fooled
| Curtis White | Overload | Lee Bryant | Everlane Unravels, Patagonia Holds Fast | Pandemic as Promise |
2020–04–19 Beacon NY | I stumbled upon Curtis White’s two-part series in Orion, written in 2007. One is entitled The Ecology of Work, and I could have selected almost any part of that essay to serve as a quote of the moment.
The coronavirus crisis rages, and we have suspended the capitalist system to enact what looks like a temporary social democracy. And many are wondering, like Jamelle Bouie, who recently wrote,
In one short month, the United States has made a significant leap toward a kind of emergency social democracy, in recognition of the fact that no individual or community could possibly be prepared for the devastation wrought by the pandemic. Should the health and economic crisis extend through the year, there’s a strong chance that Americans will move even further down that road, as businesses shutter, unemployment continues to mount and the federal government is the only entity that can keep the entire economy afloat.
But this logic — that ordinary people need security in the face of social and economic volatility — is as true in normal times as it is under crisis. If something like a social democratic…
