Precarious refers to people whose jobs and incomes are precarious. When most people use the term, they think of a group of people as a class. The precariat is a mixture of precariousness and proletariat.
In economics and sociology, the precariat is a social class that brings together people who endure uncertainty. Precarity is a precarious existence that lacks job security, predictability, and psychological or physical health. Members of the precariat lack job security. Their precarious existence is the result of intermittent employment or underemployment. Many economists and sociologists argue that the precariat emerged as a result of the entrenchedness of neoliberal capitalism.
Guy Standing and the emerging class of the precariat
Guy Standing is a British professor of Development Studies at the University of London. He co-founded the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN).
Professor Standing is the author of the book Precariat: The New Dangerous Class (2011).
He argues that globalization has pushed more and more people into precariousness, whom he describes as the emerging class.
The following comes from a Wikipedia article:
“According to Standing, the precariat not only suffers from job insecurity, but also suffers from identity insecurity and lack of control over time, especially as a result of social welfare policies.”
“Standing describes the precariat as the agglomeration of several different social groups, including immigrants, educated youth, and those emerging from the old-fashioned industrial working class.”
Professor Standing urges policymakers to implement sweeping social reforms to make financial security a right. Every country should have a basic income, which, he said, will boost GDP growth. GDP stands for gross domestic product.
populist politician
The precarious youth have become the target of populist politicians. Donald Trump and Brexit campaigners have focused on blue-collar workers without steady jobs with great success.
Across Europe and elsewhere in the world, populist politicians are exploiting the grievances of the precariat. This class is even emerging in Japan, where inequality between rich and poor has historically been relatively low and employment security is high. There are about twenty million freeters (フリータ) in Japan today – people who are either out of work or unemployed.
