Thread by @docrussjackson

The UK government once again faces accusations of passing responsibility to individual employers – trusting them to consult workers & act compassionately.

This is classic #neoliberalism, individualising responsibility & risking public health & safety.

theconversation.com/jobs-crisis-th…

It is the latest incarnation of a UK government jobs policy that fetishises laissez-faire economics, perpetual consumerism & profit maximisation. For 40 years, The winners-take-all rule by the market-world elite has dominated for forty years.

Neoliberalism has eroded the social world of collective social institutions such as public services & trade unions, while greatly increasing casualised low-paid jobs under a disposable flexible labour-market model.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1359445197113950208?s=20

This neoliberal model is broken & increasingly destructive. It is the structural root cause of problems like indebtedness, huge wealth inequalities, labour market exploitation, austerity & dismantling of public sector functioning.

COVID-19 has revealed the problems with this paradigm & showcased the low=paid, poorly treated “real key workers” keeping society functioning & supporting human life.

What is now required is a new social contract with a moral purpose.

It would be based around strengthening public services & other human necessities sometimes known as the foundational economy, while creating green jobs aimed at cutting carbon emissions.

New jobs need to be much more socially productive & environmentally sustainable.

This social contract would pay for itself over time. The costs of inadequately responding to mass unemployment would be far higher, both financially & socially.

Ten years of #austerity was self-defeating & damaged society, & the current crisis could prove considerably worse.