"The Kids Are Too Soft"

Many have taken to declaring how they don't have dream jobs since they "don't dream of labor." This buzzy phrase, popularized on social media in the pandemic, rejects work as a basis for identity, framing it instead as an act to pursue out of financial necessity. To quote the billionaire Kim Kardashian, it does seem like nobody wants to work these ... See more

One possibility is that we have all got stuck on a treadmill. Technology and globalisation mean that an increasing number of good jobs are winner-take-most competitions. Banks and law firms amass extraordinary financial returns, directors and partners within those firms make colossal salaries, and the route to those coveted positions lies through y

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Rather, I’d venture that it’s an awareness of the cold hard truth that every minute counts toward the project of gainful employment. In Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials, in which Malcolm Harris takes us through the ruthless professionalization of childhood and education, Harris writes that “[i]f enough of us start living

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