Last month I was asked by HarperCollins NY to produce an index for author Alissa Quart for “Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves for the American Dream, to be released next spring https://www.amazon.com/Bootstrapped-Liberating-Ourselves-American-Dream/dp/006302800X .
As the self-employed know, and those of us who’ve been in the gig-economy before there was even a term for it, a lot of the time you are flying by the seat of your pants, working hand-to-mouth. When most people had full-time work, “freelance” was seen to be creative, or innovative - and / or liberating from the nine-to-five lifestyle. Richard Florida’s “Creative Class” was something that many people yearned to be a part of. In the 90’s on the heels of privatization and devolution, we were admonished to ‘follow your bliss’ and all of that ‘do-what-you-want-and the-money-will-follow’ forward-thinking’ capitalistic monetization of ideals and ideas.
When the pandemic shit met the fan, the hollow bottom of the freelance /gig-economy was spattered and revealed, as people started to drown. Except for the richest, the trickle-down economy hasn’t worked. Tax cuts for the rich over the past 30 years have actually sunk more boats than have been raised. This aspect is also well-covered in this very readable book.
The book reflects on realities of working people in America during the COVID-19 pandemic. The healthcare crisis amplified negative social effects of ‘rugged individualism’ built into “the American Dream.” That dream is over; it has failed, often experienced as personal ‘failure’ rather than accumulated fallout from bad social policy (and not being born wealthy).
It’s great to read a book that covers all the weaknesses that the “self-employed” have understood for many years but may have understood as personal failure, rather than bad policy. This includes lack of access to: workplace unionization; childcare; elder care, paid care work, and food security. At least here in Canada, the meritocracy still gives most people a chance, and we don’t have to pay our entire lifesavings for healthcare (yet- and I’m talking to you, Doug Ford). I loved this book and its’ awareness-raising chapters that de-mythologize the Dream of individual control over ‘success’. I love the index that I created for it. Two themes were: liberation from the American Dream, and pandemic effects on…
As the self-employed know, and those of us who’ve been in the gig-economy before there was even a term for it, a lot of the time you are flying by the seat of your pants, working hand-to-mouth. When most people had full-time work, “freelance” was seen to be creative, or innovative - and / or liberating from the nine-to-five lifestyle. Richard Florida’s “Creative Class” was something that many people yearned to be a part of. In the 90’s on the heels of privatization and devolution, we were admonished to ‘follow your bliss’ and all of that ‘do-what-you-want-and the-money-will-follow’ forward-thinking’ capitalistic monetization of ideals and ideas.
When the pandemic shit met the fan, the hollow bottom of the freelance /gig-economy was spattered and revealed, as people started to drown. Except for the richest, the trickle-down economy hasn’t worked. Tax cuts for the rich over the past 30 years have actually sunk more boats than have been raised. This aspect is also well-covered in this very readable book.
The book reflects on realities of working people in America during the COVID-19 pandemic. The healthcare crisis amplified negative social effects of ‘rugged individualism’ built into “the American Dream.” That dream is over; it has failed, often experienced as personal ‘failure’ rather than accumulated fallout from bad social policy (and not being born wealthy).
It’s great to read a book that covers all the weaknesses that the “self-employed” have understood for many years but may have understood as personal failure, rather than bad policy. This includes lack of access to: workplace unionization; childcare; elder care, paid care work, and food security. At least here in Canada, the meritocracy still gives most people a chance, and we don’t have to pay our entire lifesavings for healthcare (yet- and I’m talking to you, Doug Ford). I loved this book and its’ awareness-raising chapters that de-mythologize the Dream of individual control over ‘success’. I love the index that I created for it. Two themes were: liberation from the American Dream, and pandemic effects on…
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