My diss explains the reasons for a casual, hierarchical, and migrant labor force in the Pacific Northwest in the 19th/20th centuries. Most days, I'm reading through government reports and bosses papers about this labor system. But one thing never fails to astound me.

And that's how many people today take for granted the idea that you could work in one industry full-time for forty years, and then retire with a pension and benefits. Both my dad (construction) and my dad-in-law (shipyard) did this. Hell, that's the dream for many!

But I was explaining to my dad-in-law that before WWII, this kind of stable employment was not the norm. The US commission on industrial relations (1915) explained the hallmarks of the problem of casualization that echoes to today.

Explaining one effect of the "irregularity of employment," the report highlights "The gradual loss of economic status by workers who are thrown out of employment and the inevitable drift of a large proportion into the class ordinarily known as 'casual laborers.'" Hello adjuncts!

Another good one, "The existence of a supply of casual laborers and irregularly employed women and children, upon which *parasitic industries*, unable to exist unless they pay wages below the standard of decent subsistence, are called into being."

The point is, the problem of casualization, or in 21st century speak, "the gig economy," is much older than Uber and Instacart. This type of casual, short-term, highly flexible employment seems to be the norm, and the long-term, stable, and remunerative jobs are the exception.

Those "good" jobs were/are not inherently good, but a product of long-term organizing and unions. Both my dads' jobs were good because of unions, not because bosses just decided to move away from casual, short-term employment.

Another gem: "While capital can offset the fat years against the lean, the human beings who are unemployed can not, but must starve or suffer a rapid physical and moral deterioration."

(cont.) "The result is that unless the wage earners are very strongly organized—and the vast majority are not—they must bear the whole burden of the waiting period when they must act as a reserve force ready to meet the maximum demand of the busy season."