----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark DeLucas" <mkdelucas at gmail.com>
"The increasing number of free workers is simply the consequence of a lack of jobs, or, put another way, the practice of employers exploiting an over-saturated white-collar labor market, populated mostly by undistinguished college graduates who nevertheless retain hopes of one day doing something interesting and personally fulfilling. If the number of available paying white collar jobs were to rise, the number of people working for free would drop, because, get this, *people by and large dislike laboring for free*. You, on the other hand, who envision the free-working force as composed substantially of hobbyists, would expect the number to remain static -- increase even, since for you most free-workers, liberated by their steady paychecks, would indulge themselves and work for free as a labor of love. In which case, the phenomenon would probably serve in a significant way the purpose you want to assign to it, viz "isolating and thus stripping workers with some “privileges” (healthcare, collective bargaining capabilities, job security, so on)".
Whereas in reality, because most people indeed work for free only as a last or nearly last resort, the free-working phenomenon will only go so far as the recession will take it." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let's agree that the phenomenon the article described is structurally determined by high unemployment.
But historically, people have been working for free for a long time and for similar reasons. These include:
--artists (as in practice, rhearsal, and (often) performance. I know a lot of dancers; they mostly don't get paid. --parents (as in PTA's, volunteer teaching or helping in schools, organizing kids' sports, etc.) --politically motivated people, left or right, in organizing, propaganda, etc. --politically motivated craftsmen as in puppet making for marches, free source software, etc. --motivated to save environment, animals, or people: as in beach cleanup, animal shelters, suicide hotlines.
I suspect that as all but the military aspects of the state shut down, the numbers doing this kind of free work will also increase. But basically, this free work happens because unalienated work is extremely satisfying.
I wish you the best in securing congenial work. I think you misunderstood the drift of my original post. I was not pleased with the way the NYT article mixed up the free work of the truly desperate with the free work of temporarily unemployed CEOs, lining up their next gig.
As for the growing immiseration of workers, I don't think there's any disagreement between us.
Joanna