Taxpayers, ratepayers, jobs and workers

In a post last week, I addressed French philosopher Michel Foucault’s work on discipline and punishment. Reflecting on how his studies in justice and social order show up in modern society.

I included extensive quotes from the transcript of an episode of Philosophize This! by Stephen West. Today I will use the text to pivot to another issue which bothers.

“To Foucault, the goal of the modern penal system is not justice or fairness… the goal is through surveillance, normalization and examination to produce harmless, non-rebellious, working, tax-paying productive citizens who follow the rules and are satisfied with a life of conforming to the normalized standard of what it is to be a person handed down to them from above… in other words, docile, useful subjects that carry out the vision for what the future should hold given to them by the people in power.”

‘Dog-whistles’ litter the modern political discourse, riling up segments of the population to solidify, mollify or enrage the political base for or against something.

The units

The way we use the terms taxpayers, ratepayers, jobs, workers and specifically “the hard working people” all trigger me. My point here is not to diminish the importance of working or making a financial contribution to society. We simply reduce people to economic units. They become merely workers or taxpayers. As such, we de-humanize and categorize people. It’s the precursor for many fierce battles between “us” and “them”, and “our” side and “their” side. If the goal is to create a fair and just society, then it is unfortunate that the discourse is divided into pro-labour or anti-worker, pro-taxpayer or anti-taxpayer tribes.

This provides a fertile landscape for divisive, angry politics which is far from the environment we need to solve the pressing social, environmental and economic challenges of our times.

Yes, we are workers and taxpayers, and yes jobs, the economy and a healthy environment are important. But people are so much more than an economic unit so let’s not forget our dignity, respectability and decency.