Work is often loaded with all kinds of moral and social significance to justify its centrality in our lives. But the Covid-19 pandemic has brought a more essential aspect into sharp – and desperate – focus: that throughout history work has meant strategic action to ensure survival.
There is no way of getting past this bare and rather basic fact when confronted with the reality of multitudes of labourers who, it is generally supposed, should not be working at all (or at least not full-time): children.
