Secular Immiseration : On the Crisis and Future of Work

Moraitis, Alexis (2025) Secular Immiseration : On the Crisis and Future of Work. Historical Materialism. pp. 1-37. ISSN 1465-4466

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Abstract

This article engages with Marx’s mature critique of political economy and explores its relevance for understanding the crisis of work today. I consider the implications of Marx’s understanding of the relationship between machinery, labour and surplus populations for contemporary debates on automation’s impact on the future of work. Marx’s critique allows us to grasp how the capitalist application of machinery not only subjects the employment of people to permanent insecurity but crucially also tends to worsen their situation as capitalism matures. Runaway productivity growth produces a growing asynchrony between the expansion of capital and the demand for labour that secularly renders employment relations increasingly precarious and insecure. The article also considers some of the political stakes of Marx’s argumentation by exploring the tension between the increasing superfluity of labour and the emancipatory potential of disposable time.