LETTERS : Work may be casual but the bills are depressingly regular
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.YOU GIVE your readers a rough ride. One moment we are basking in optimism with the American author William Bridges, who sees "real opportunities" with the end of the bad old industrial world in which nearly everyone laboured under the wasteful, tyrannical ideal of having something called "a job". Then we turn to Neal Ascherson who sees "a society in which only a minority of the employed population will have full-time jobs" as being a return to the system of "mobs of men waiting in the rain outside docks or building sites for the chance of a day's pay".
Who is right? Living as an urban yeoman, digging potatoes from the allotment, making fishing expeditions to Hampshire for trout for the deep freeze, faxing my offerings from the comfort of home to the publishing giant of my choice, I feel in tune with the fearless fluidity of the electronic future depicted by William Bridges.
At other times, striving to satisfy the cold, temporary demands of a "project" rather than being enfolded by the warm human culture of a company, and being forced to badger accounts departments for cheques, the future looks fearfully as described by Neal Ascherson: sad, lonely, bleak and probably underpaid.
Pearson Phillips
London N1
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments