Guy Standing Quotes

No one really has any job security anymore, including myself.

Many years ago, I really didn't know where the next work was coming from.

When you are a freelancer, you are always looking for a next job. There is always struggle.

Many in the precariat know they have to spend considerable time just waiting for opportunities to arise.

Acting is one of the most risky businesses you could ever be in. You literally do not know where your next paycheck will come from.

Henry Fonda one time said that every time he had a job, he thought it was gonna' be the last one. And, if you got any sense, you gotta' think that because, you know when somebody's gonna do a dip, some of 'em go pretty far down.

It's scary to not know when your next job is coming, and that is a daily fear when you are trying to act full-time.

There isn't a single business where anybody feels secure.

The life of an actor is very random. It can be exhilarating but terrifying - you do wonder day to day where the next job will come from. Some of my friends are very talented people, but you see them out of work - which can be tough. If you wanted that kind of security, though, I guess you wouldn't be an actor in the first place.

I'm not under the illusion that everything's just going to be hunky-dory work wise forever. I've never been under that illusion. Things could go away tomorrow.

It's not a very secure industry. I've spoken to a couple of people recently who had a successful TV show and then found themselves absolutely skint and struggling to find a job.

When I was focusing on theater, I would go on for months without any work and could hardly pay the rent.

American capitalism today offers us no assurances that our efforts will be rewarded by security, stability or enough income to let us live well or at least well enough… Contemporary capitalism turns all workers—laborers and managers alike—into economic junk. The days if a long career with one employer, once a key part of the American dream, are long gone for most workers.

Political and economic insecurity inevitably translates into insecurity in people's everyday lives, from lack of access to welfare to the increasing lack of security in the workplace.

As do most Koreans, Seoul residents consider the uncertainty related to housing to be the biggest threat to their livelihoods.

The idea of a family sitting round the kitchen table and carefully planning their future family size based on the certainty of years to come is a complete fantasy. Back in the real world, jobs are lost, livelihoods taken away, families break apart, partners leave or pass away.

There is already a generation of European graduates who feel they have been robbed of the better future they were led to expect. They are members of a new class: the precariat.

Most people with good jobs, middle-class occupations, what have you, are only one pitfall away from social embarrassment and destitution. It's so precarious. Even salaried people in the West now feel this sense of being trapped, not having the freedom to strike out.

I always have to presume that each movie is my last movie because I never know if I'll get money again.

Uncertainty is killing this economy.

There have been moments where I'm like, 'I don't know how I'm going to survive and pay next month's rent.' And the next month I'm filming a movie in New York City.

There have definitely been more than a few moments in my life where I'm wondering where the next paycheck will come from and how I'm gonna pay rent.

Anybody who is in freelance work, especially artistically, knows that it comes with all the insecurity and the ups and downs. It's a really frightening life.

Mother had to support herself at age 18 because it was during the depression and when my grandfather lost the farm and there was no place for her; she worked as an assistant to a maid.

I never had a month or so go by where I haven't had a job, but you always worry that someone will turn off the tap.