Unlearning “money makes the world go around”

That paid work, or preparing for it, should be at the centre of human existence, that bosses should direct workers how to spend their time, energy and talents, was a dangerous, fast-growing pathology of the late-20th century we have yet to escape. Women, indigenous peoples, older people, were all targeted by the disease, as John Maynard Keynes’s promise of 15-hour week failed to arrive. Yet for many, jobs don’t “pay” – don’t produce a sustainable level of income, do great damage to physical and mental health, and involve copious amounts of – as David Graeber put it – bullshit, pointless, or destructive, activities. Money was long regarded as “the root of all evil”, and for many Global South countries, that is what injections of debt has achieved. In North and South, financialisation – often forced on struggling states by the ideology of the International Monetary Fund – has destroyed public services. Money is actively designed (as some proponents still celebrate) to break down human relationships, the warmth of care and gift giving celebrated by Robin Wall Kimmerer. But paid work is a social construction, in our control. Should we decide to take back control – particularly through unions – we can.