Workfare and the precariat

Workfare is the wrong policy response to the insecurities and inequalities inherent in a flexible market economy. It does nothing to counter these insecurities and inequalities and represents an abandonment of universalistic and solidaristic principles. Instead, it subjects a growing minority to coercive measures and immiseration, while allowing them to be demonized and blamed for being victims of a situation not of their making. Labour should move away from its espousal of workfare and come up with egalitarian and emancipatory alternatives, such as basic income, that respond to labour market realities.