The doctrine of ‘hard working’ is the worst kind of religion

Mary Evans explores the outbreak of rhetoric about ‘hard work’ and argues that it has two functions: it serves to somehow make the performer of that task a better person, whilst at the same time legitimating vicious policies towards those who are not ‘hard working’; and second, in framing that latter category as the thieves of the rewards of the worthy it encourages us to avoid remembering that the rewards for the ‘hard-working’ are getting fewer and fewer: disposable income is decreasing as are all forms of public support.