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<p>This is the article I'd mentioned on Saturday and today <b>-
"The Unnecessariat".</b> It's a rich article in several
directions, worth reading in full, as are many of the comments
that follow it. Thanks to <a
href="http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/">Naked Capitalism</a>
for the pointer.<br>
</p>
<p> I remember reading a related theme in some book by Jeremy
Rifkin, where he was writing about the migration of Black people
from the South as agriculture became increasingly mechanized -
'they went from being exploited to being useless labor'.</p>
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<p><a
href="https://morecrows.wordpress.com/2016/05/10/unnecessariat/"
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<p>Some quotes are below ...<br>
<br>
</p>
<p> "The word “community” is much abused now, used in
journo-speak to mean “a group of people with one
salient characteristic in common” like “banking
community” or “jet-ski riding community” but the gay
community at the time [of the AIDS epidemic] was the
real deal: a dense network of reciprocal social and
personal obligations and friendships, with second- and
even third-degree connections given substantial heft.
If you want a quick shorthand, your community is the
set of people you could plausibly ask to watch your
cat for a week, and the people they would in turn ask
to come by and change the litterbox on the day they
had to work late. There’s nothing like that for
addicts, nor suicides, not now and not in the past,
and in fact that’s part of the phenomenon I want to
talk about here. This is a despair that sticks when
there’s no-one around who cares about you."</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>"In 2011, economist Guy Standing coined the term
“precariat” to refer to workers whose jobs were
insecure, underpaid, and mobile, [...] Looking back
from 2016, one pertinent characteristic seems obvious:
no matter how tenuous, the precariat had jobs. The new
dying Americans, the ones killing themselves on
purpose or with drugs, don’t. Don’t, won’t, and know
it.</p>
<p> Here’s the thing: from where I live, the world has
drifted away. We aren’t precarious, we’re unnecessary.
The money has gone to the top. The wages have gone to
the top. The recovery has gone to the top. And what’s
worst of all, everybody who matters seems basically
pretty okay with that."</p>
<p> ...<br>
<br>
[during the AIDS epidemic] The gay community didn’t
just roll over and ask nicely for recognition, they
had their shit together enough that they could fight
their way, literally, into the studios of one of the
top news shows in America, into the US capitol, the UK
parliament, into the streets of every major city at
rush hour. AIDS galvanized them, but it was their
mutual recognition as friends, allies,
comrades-in-arms from years of fighting for urban
space to hook up in that made that galvanic surge
possible. <br>
</p>
<p> ...<br>
<br>
So far, the quiet misery of the unnecessariat has yet
to spark its own characteristic explosion, but is it
so hard to see the germ of it in Trump’s rallies? In
the Lavoy Finicum memorials?</p>
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