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In The Problem with Work, Kathi Weeks boldly challenges the presupposition that work, or waged labor, is inherently a social and political good. While progressive political movements, including the Marxist and feminist movements, have fought for equal pay, better work conditions, and the recognition of unpaid work as a valued form of labor, even they have tended to accept work as a naturalized or inevitable activity. Weeks argues that in taking work as a given, we have “depoliticized” it, or removed it from the realm of political critique.

A subreddit dedicated to the once-radical idea of anti-work is exploding during the pandemic era. Is real-world action next?

We spend many waking hours preparing for work, at work, or recovering from work, and many of us live in societies that, in the words of scholar Kathi Weeks, “expect people to work for wages.” In The transatlantic slave trade in the 1500s–1800s bound up capitalism with colonialism and racism. Slavery was progressively abolished starting in the late eighteenth century in Haiti and continued through the nineteenth century, but this did not bring an end to racial hierarchies or the entanglement between race, capitalism, and colonialism. Instead, the transition to free wage labor accompanie...

On Biden’s American Families Plan and Resisting the Conservative Politics of Care The president’s forthcoming proposal on care could both meaningfully address the current crisis and open up space for more radical demands about work and family life. John Moore/Getty Images The American Families Plan is not utopian, but it could be understood as aspirational. According to reporting from Jeff Stein at The Washington Post, the plan, to be released by the Biden administration this week, moves hundreds of billions of dollars to support paid family leave and childcare, along with extending dire...

The Year That Broke Care Work The crisis of care is not new for low-income parents. The pandemic just spread the pain—and created new audiences for old solutions. Illustration by Tara Jacoby A small guaranteed income is included in the new stimulus package approved by Congress on Wednesday afternoon. Starting around July, households earning $150,000 or less annually will receive monthly payments ranging from $250 to $300 per child, part of the larger $1.9 trillion package in response to the coronavirus pandemic. These are a kind of advance on an existing but expanded child tax credit. What...