The struggle of workers has changed immeasurably since the 1850s, when stonemasons won the right to an eight-hour day. We've seen the rise and fall of union membership, the privatisation of the commons, the rise of contract work and the hustle of the gig economy, where a lot of those fights won by workers don't even make much sense.
Consider the following ad from an outer Melbourne resident that appeared recently on a buy and sell Facebook page: 'FREE ROOM IN EXCHANGE FOR HELP.'
'We are a friendly family,' the ad explains, 'of two awesome children (aged five and three), looking for a responsible, reliable and energetic person to child mind while living with us, Monday to Friday. We are a lovely, funny, and very busy family: Dad is a mechanical engineer and works varying hours ... "Just a Mum" has just been accepted at a major university to commence a master in teaching (full time).'
Of course, it's not just a room that's on offer. 'All food, accommodation, internet and basic facilities will be provided in exchange for caring for our two children, bit of cooking and snack prep, bit of housework, and being solely responsible for their drop offs and pick ups to kinder, childcare, swimming and sports ...'
Then comes the clincher: 'MUST HAVE: 1. Full availability. 2. A current drivers license and OWN CAR and 3. A valid Working With Children Check. Please, NO SMOKERS, NO DRUGS, NO GAMERS, NO PARTY ANIMALS and a sensible female is preferred. Our room is clean, fully furnished, towels and linen provided ...'
The ad was innocuous enough that several people liked it. A few comments said it was quite the wonderful thing. Apparently we have transitioned to a bartering economy — now it's fine to be paid in accommodation instead of actual dollars.
The precariousness of our housing crisis, a public issue, is here a private tool. The new nanny's financial situation has just been outsourced to ... well, the new nanny. Money's very invisibility in this ad suggests you are overreacting if you feel like there's anything undignified about this situation.
"The problem isn't that this 'position' won't be filled. The problem is it will, by someone desperate for the digs. It might be a step up for someone who's already living in their car."
The admin of this Facebook group deleted our comments, mine questioning the lack of pay and my partner tagging the Australian Workers Union into the conversation. I private messaged the ad's owner, admittedly with some snark, suggesting she pay whoever is desperate enough to take the job. She replied in a caps-lock fury telling me to BACK OFF. Apparently it is a particular affront to insist upon there being an issue with a job resembling a cashless welfare card.
The deal is a two-way street, she insisted! They have had a LOT of positive feedback and will be accepting a worthy applicant of THEIR OWN FREE WILL. 'We offer a bunch of other bonuses,' she fumed. These bonuses are: food, utilities, accommodation and internet. Laying it on with a trowel there. Not a word on superannuation payments or annual leave!
The problem isn't that this 'position' won't be filled. The problem is that it will, by someone desperate for the digs and willing and able to work in dribs and drabs during the day or night or on the weekend, in between the housework, to fund their tampons, coffee, secondhand clothes, and the insurance, rego and petrol required to ferry the kids around.
This might be a step up, for someone who's already living in their car.
What's not okay is this 'just a mum' can afford to go full-time to do her Masters, and her husband is a mechanical engineer, but they just can't afford to pay this person, who must be energetic but not an eccy-taker, reliable, and super flexible, but at the same time super cool with the financial precariousness that will come from this situation, from fitting in all those flexible online gigs that are gonna be dripping $7.38 here and $93.31 there into their account.
The problem with progress is it doesn't stay progressed. Shove 40 years of relentless economic reform and austerity on a people, insist on them not being able to afford nice strengthening societal things anymore because 'something something something not enough money' and 'something something something the finance industry', and us humans adapt to our reduced oxygen environment. Soon, the hustle is just how it is. Security? Safety? Welfare net? They're luxuries we can't afford.
We can't not afford them. We need to take back what's ours.
Sue Stevenson has had political commentary, essays and short fiction published in New Matilda, Independent Australia, Southerly Journal and The Big Issue Australia. She is an unironical hugger of trees.