Milton
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2007
- Messages
- 2,360
"My Arts Degree Hasn't Made My Fortune"
Gosh, what a sense of entitlement. Call me reactionary, but I found this attitude questionable.
Gosh, what a sense of entitlement. Call me reactionary, but I found this attitude questionable.
I grew up in a family of artists to whom the idea that anyone should spend their days doing anything they don’t love is anathema.
In 2006, aged 25, I swanned out of Manchester University, up Oxford Road to Rushholme jobcentre, and signed on the dole. There is nothing wrong with this, but I accept that, in the age of universal credit and exorbitant living costs, it’s simply not an option for today’s graduates. I realise too that such a life involves deprivations and that gainful employment can teach us about cooperating with others, the value of time and financial independence. But that work must be meaningful and not part of the “bullshit jobs” epidemic which, according to the anthropologist David Graeber, leaves “a scar across our collective soul”.