The Unnecessariat

In 2011, economist Guy Standing coined the term “precariat” to refer to workers whose jobs were insecure, underpaid, and mobile, who had to engage in substantial “work for labor” to remain employed, whose survival could, at any time, be compromised by employers (who, for instance held their visas) and who therefore could do nothing to improve their lot. The term found favor in the Occupy movement, and was colloquially expanded to include not just farmworkers, contract workers, “gig�...

 The Need for Explorative Education Tracking

Governments, employers, and other interested third parties still look to traditional institutions of education to verify that learning has taken place. Schools and colleges thus play the same centralized, closed system role that banks do in the financial system. Like banks that ensure the validity and authenticity of financial transactions, educational institutions award degrees of completion that “validate” (albeit poorly) that a particular learner has learned a certain skill, competency...

 Information is the Power to Control

Information is a part of all systems of power. Top bureaucrats try to control information as part of their control over subordinates and clients. Corporations try to control information through trade secrets and patents. Militaries try to control information using the rationale of “national security.” So-called freedom of information— namely, public access to documents produced in bureaucracies—is a threat to top bureaucrats. In a society where not everyone can read and write, litera...