Thread by @edroso

Surveillance and the high cost of living have made it harder than it was to just say fuck this job — which I seriously believe is why society is so deranged now. 1/2

https://twitter.com/domhnall_g/status/1160170582618628099

It used to be that if you just got mad and quit, even if you had no resources, it’s didn’t take too much to get back on your feet — you could find some other shitty job quick and the loss wasn’t bad.

But things have changed. (Cont.)

Even shitty jobs want your history. References. Getting a job sweeping hallways now is like getting into Northrop Grumman used to be.

And Roger Miller’s “two hours of pushin’ a broom” don’t earn a “8x12 for-rent room” anymore. (Cont.)

Unless you saved up for job loss like it was a college education, you go WAY in the hole quick. And for most of us, loans are out of the question — you float on credit cards, which are mercilessly expensive.

So you eat shit and hold onto that crappy job. (Cont.)

And this high-pressure situation is not just killing you — it’s killing the country.
Remember when Pelosi said the job flexibility inherent in Obamacare meant some people could now change careers and maybe be an artist, and Republicans sneered?
I think about that a lot. (Cont.)

Conservatives will always sneer at the arts of course, but in that context they were also sneering at the idea of why we used to call “slack” — that when society is a little more forgiving of failure and displacement, it’s healthier than the locked-up hellscape we’re in. (Cont.)

I plead for slack. I plead for society as it once was — where you don’t need a college degree to live decently; where a job loss is not a catastrophe like cancer; where when we fall we can climb up before we’re mowed down; where we can say FUCK THIS JOB. (Fin.)