The failed utopia of the creative class. 

I was talking to my dad the other day about being a first time buyer, I am 27 and living with my family, I have a job in the city and its good pay. I can only afford a 1 bed flat in a village 40 minutes away from work. My dad bought his first house when he was 21, it was a three bedroom house with a big garden, and he was earning way less than what I am earning now. The class system has changed over the last 30 years, but our systems and ways of thinking are still stuck in 1980s.

The loss of the commons, of public spaces, is a factor here. Actual artists and students - as opposed to corporate 'creatives' - will go where the rent is cheap, because they have little money. Bona-fide bohemians will drink cheap wine in the park with their friends, not go to cocktail bars. But the modern city is very unfriendly to the poor, creative or not.

I think the worst thing social media has ever done to us is promoting horrible idea that you have to monetize your creativity, your passion - and, ultimately, your soul - either for money or clout. It creates a goal to put out steady stream of product - "content" - with the same level of quality, of course ! - or else, who would want a defective product? However, the sole purpose of creativity is exploration. Art exists only in challenging the unknown. The monetization of creativity is inherently opposing creativity and killing it.

The part where you mention the urge of young people to socialize in city centers really resonated with my current situation. I live in a suburb and my college and most of my classmates are based in the city. On instagram i see my classmates put up pics and videos of themselves lounging in niche cafes and indie stores, just having a good time. Upon seeing their posts I feel a little, well no other way to say this, sad. It takes me more than an hour to reach the city and with covid, there are a lot of restrictions on inter-district public commute. All in all, I feel pretty miserable that I do not have the means(economic as well as physical) to experience life like my peers but that part, for some reason, made me feel that it is okay to experience these feelings. Also, great video!! love your work

I worked mostly in China (for an animation company there) from 2014-2016. When I came back to Los Angeles at the end of 2016 I noticed that suddenly everyone below the level of producer was now called a "creative". My honest reaction was that it was a bit condescending... the idea seemed to be "the people who don't have real power are called 'creatives'"... at the same time it seemed to be an example of the phenomenon of "grade inflation" in the movie biz... people who really should have been paid more for their substantive contribution to a project were, rather, rewarded by being called "creative" rather than "animator" or "designer" or "writer". In that sense it was paying those people in prestige (an old phenomenon) while giving the real money in increasing amounts to the producers and the production companies.

Your example of the graphic designer really hit home. I’m a copywriter and I’ve always worked with graphic designers. Two seemingly creative jobs yet they’re far more about productivity, capitalism, marketing tactics, templates, and people pleasing than truly creative work. In the past, I’ve had to track my time and justify every minute which makes my skin crawl. For me, writing often happens in bursts rather than sustained productivity over an 8-hour day, 40-hour week.

I once work in a bookstore (a chain) and they didnt see the books, they saw products to sell. They called some stands "impulsive buy stands" and it disgusted me. I still stayed to work there, but I was quickly fired, because 1 : I was trying to read books back cover so I could suggest books to clients, but apparently, this wasnt what i was supposed to do. 2 : they didnt want us to talk between employees. When I walked by a another employee, I would only say hi and the assistant boss walked across the fucking bookstore to tell me that we would be splited. I thought this was a place for culture, but it was capitalist as any other shop.

Can we just take a moment to be amazed at the fact that The Guardian chose to sponsor Alice with an exclusive of all people!? This is such a high profile and highly respected newspaper who is very keen on keeping that reputation. It really says something about what they think about Alice's content. Well done! Félicitations!

as a member of the creative class studying architecture in toronto lmao, i would 100% say that there is a capitalization of creativity. like at my core, i’m a creative person, i’m always looking to solve problems and do things in a new way but deadass, the way i have to pump out “new” ideas every week is exhausting. like this is no longer creative. a lot of people i know experience this. we’ve dubbed it “creative burnout.” youre running through the methods of creation without actually producing anything of value. it’s just interesting to look at how we’ve package creatively for maximum attraction but doesn’t necessarily produce the innovation that is inherit to what creativity is

This is a great video essay. You put your finger on something I've always faintly felt but never had the words for. See I'm a full-time RU-vidr (barely) and still struggling to get by. There is a path to more wealth, but it involves doubling down on product placements and selling things to my viewers. Essentially, becoming less of a creative and more of a businessman. But if I wanted to be a businessman I would have done that in the first place. The allure of RU-vid was creative self-expression. And yet, when I meet strangers sometimes and say I'm employed as a RU-vidr I'll see a look on their eyes like they think that's a dream. As if they think I've escaped. But I haven't escaped the system anymore than they have. The utopia, as you put it, is paper thin.

10:13 - this is such a great point. I'm a digital designer at an agency. most people assume that design is a very creative field, when in reality, if you're working with a brand that has established brand guidelines, creativity is more stifled than you'd think and bringing in new ideas isn't always encouraged. in that sense, design can become just about production and efficiency rather than "creativity." in fact, in a lot of places I've worked, I've been told to pursue "creative side projects" to improve my craft, probably because even management recognizes that we don't (always) have a true creative outlet in our day to day work. this isn't true for all designers, of course, but just my experience working in tech.

YES YES YES. I work as a motion designer at a media company, and most of the profitable projects I work on are not creative at all. We are encouraged to take initiative to start our own creative side projects, but those projects are frowned upon when our bosses look at the time sheets. Aka - the non-creative pixel pushing client work will always be prioritised.

I used to work in advertising and I completely agree with this. To separate workers like I am as a “creative class” is disingenuous and to say that I “own” the mans of production? I had worked up to 12 hours a day in front of my screen writing copy and graphics to add value only for teh corporations that were my company’s clients. That meant I worked up to 11pm on weeks leading up to a pitch deadline. That was NOT me owning the means of production. In my country workers in the industry are very rarely unionised. Now that I am a freelancer, I am more often than not considered a gig worker so that leaves me out of employment-based retirement benefits and insurance. Like you said, we’re left in a “precarious” situation. Knock on wood, but my biggest fear is having a health crisis that I cannot pay my way out of.

I’m a wildlife conservationist and fine artist, in australia things are a bit different but the artist is certainly treated like a different class than other workers, like our work isn’t legitimate labour and just playing, we aren’t serious and we don’t require appropriate compensation. I spend more hours on my paintings for local display than I do rehabilitating animals but only one is taken as a contribution to society.

"Making creativity productive ultimately killing creativity in the process" - so accurate

You should make a video sometime about the importance & impact urban planning/urbanism has on ones mental health & economic class. Ever since I watched Not Just Bikes & Eco Gecko videos I finally realized why I find car-dependent/sprawling cities & towns depressing. Humans are social creatures, we need connection with others in order to be mentally (& physically) healthy. Sprawling/car dependent cities & towns are terrible for ones physical/mental health, your wallet/the economy & for the environment too. More leftists need to have discussions about urban planning & its importance.

I'M SO HYPE that The Guardian is sponsoring you omg. Congratulations, Alice. You deserve it.

This reminds me of the job I recently quit. It is a job as a content writer which in the description was supposed to be something creative. But when I started working, the editors tried to police everything I did down to my choice of words. If I structured a sentence to create a certain emotion, they would say it is too much words, or it is too positive, or it is too heavy. At the end of the day, writing for blogs and websites was not creative. It was very suffocating so I quit. P.S the pay was shite

“By looking only at income or lifestyle, we see the results of class, but not the origins of class. We see how we are different in our possessions, but not how we are related and connected, and made different, in the process of making what we possess.”' - Michael Zweig (The working class majority) got the quote from jacobin magazine but I first heard it in a video of yugopnik. I think that if people really "owned the capital inside their own heads", they wouldn't have to sell it's products to survive.

A long time ago, in a life far far away, I was a graphic designer in a factory where they produced patches, for the uniforms, companies rented for their workers. We a team, of 10 or so, "graphic designers", produced camera ready artwork of the client's company logos, that were faxed to the factory. The factory used that camera ready artwork to produce screens that were used to screenprint the patches. I absolutely was an, all be it beginning, graphic artist doing non-creative factory artwork, required to complete a certain number of designs per day. Interestingly, I was fired because I talked too much to my neighboring graphic artist, while working at my drawing table. I was the highest producing artist, but my propensity for not following the no talking rule, among other rules, was incompatible with the factory's way of doing business.

As a social anthropologist, I enjoy your content very much. Well researched as always. I just wanted to add the information that the creative class is defined by a lower economic, but higher social and cultural capital - speaking in Bourdieus differenciation between the sorts of capitals.

An hour before watching this video I saw on Twitter that galleries are selling Hunter Biden's art for $100k more than signed Picassos. Success as a creative is *heavily* dependent on who you are, and who you know.

I'm sorry if you said this and I just didn't hear it, but "the precariat" is a term that I've found very useful. I encountered it when I was a grad student learning about other grad students experiencing food insecurity. Middle class, fancy titles on the way, but one wrong step means losing your next meal or your shelter, precarious.

Creatives definitely are workers, and they are expected more than anyone to be grateful for what morsels the capitalist class throws them because their work is "enjoyable" - the same goes for academia. As if that type of work didn't also have to support lives and families. Not to say that creative or academic workers are "more oppressed", this is not oppression olympics. But it means that creatives and academics are exploited and underpaid and actively discouraged from organising, unionising, or criticising the system.

Part of this is how in creative writing publishing there's a real inequality of opportunity. I can submit stories or poems to magazines, agents, and publishers and hope to get accepted--in that way, it's supposedly a level field based solely on the quality of the art. (Nevermind that the forerunners of these publishers let Joyce die in poverty and didn't realize Moby Dick was good until 50 years after Melville was dead.) However, writers with leisure time and basic needs already met can devote the massive amounts of time it takes to submit work to agents and magazines. Writers with more money can go to the workshops, conferences, and retreats where they improve their work and network within the industry. People who can afford to live in New York and still do all this have the advantage of being close to the major publishing centers (in the US at least.) Plus, the writing establishment--big name literary writers, agents, publishers, publicists, all those folks--seem to be an insular group, and wealthy to begin with. It can't be good for our culture that our literature, at least the stuff that's recognized in the larger culture, comes mainly from this one class of very rich people.

It's amazing how you captured the soul-crushing reality of being a graphic designer. Unless you're the owner of the company or independent, there is very little creativity in the process other than making something visually attractive to the masses. As a "small" designer you are expected to be more of an Adobe artisan more than anything. Same goes for any other work that requires a certain level of craftmanship, digital or otherwise. (Needless to say, I changed fields of study once I realized that WORKING as a designer sucks unless you really, really, really, love it). Side note: Absolutely loved the video essay!! It's so pertinent to what is going on in the world. Merci!

If I'm not mistaken, Marx saw creative work as a crucial component in human fulfillment, and his utopia was one where individuals are free to harness their creativity--not to maximize someone else's profits, or earn enough money to only survive--but for the fulfillment that it brings the individual. Capitalism, though it does spur creativity in innovation for making money, ultimately stifles it in a more fundamental sense I'm not a Marx scholar though, so please feel free to correct me if I misread his work. Happy to learn more!

I have a degree in graphic design. The main take away from my degree was, being creative is not part of design. It's all about following the rules. That world wasn't for me, as I never found work in it. I've got an uncreative job in a warehouse now, and I keep myself alive through drawing on my own.

In the Arts, you need Social Capital to sustain you and create Economic Capital. The truth is that money makes money. We also have to understand how Art is both a result of appropriation and gatekeeping.

As an artist who currently studies in music university I really see my peers being pressured to work soon and pay their rent - whilst they usually play in prestigious orchestras and have beautiful concerts, they spend more time in rehearsal as they are even paid and barely can afford everything they need. In Austria there is the saying „bread - less art“ which is badly translated but revers to being in touch with the higher classes who pay the expensive VIP Tickets, also being worshipped and romanticised by them through their performance, but still have to come home to a cheap flat and maybe dept - and even if they are doing good financially, the time they have to invest in their craft and career still prevents them to work towards goals like investing money or owning stuff (except their instrument). This is why many musicians choose to be teaching their instrument over just performing - and thus maybe reaching „middle class“ .

So many great things in this video, I'd start out by saying that I feel a lot of people have been duped by these representations of graphic designers to think it's an artistic career, you can make it one by choosing some fields, but truth be told at it's core design should be solving problems, graphic design solving visual communication problems through the tools you learn, which means a lot of the time understanding the elements that will work to solve the problem for said client, brand and audience, is there space for creativity, of course, I think almost any job has that whether society deems it creative or not, but it is not artistic. Second, one of the hardest things creatives have to encounter as they work and I truly feel a lot don't understand it for a lot of time if ever at all, is that for most clients it's about the bottom line, they are coming to you to solve a visual problem and generate more money, that's it, and if they don't see how you can do it or usually how it happens, you can't pitch or explain your value to them, they'll go for the cheap fiverr route, most company owner's won't care about the 20 hours you put into the custom lettering for their logo and the perfect kerning in their tagline, as such most creatives need to work for a person who has these capabilities under a usually low salary. In our ultra capitalistic society most creatives cannot show the monetary impact of their work and thus they are like another user said, almost relegated to "playful work" and shitty salaries, and you may hate it, but it is the world we live in and the state of affairs, either you prove a high ROI or I'll go with the option that does. And in the social media alternate reality, yes we can see a lot of creatives living out in NYC, SF, London, Paris, shopping all the time, having drinks, taking trips, but as with most career, either they are part of the .001% top performers who found a way to make it big, or statistically more probable, they are broke and live this social media reality through credit, but have no real assets. This is of course a vicious cycle, because it makes other creatives around the world see these lives and think they haven't made for some reason and as with mos social media, can lead to psychological distress.

The interesting thing about this channel is how easily it can be described even though it is a highly philosophical channel. It is basically Alice showing us how deep the rabbit hole goes.

I loved the start of this video! Now, I'm a Canadian who has lived in England for 6 years now. It took me about 2 years to figure out what "class" is here and navigate my way through the caste system that exists in the UK! So in Canada, a upper class person is someone with a lot of money. A middle class person is like, a normal, average income family. And lower class people are poorer people. (to be blunt). So to a Canadian standard, I grew up really middle class! But in the UK class is a MUCH BIGGER THING! And I still cannot fully wrap my head around it. Old money, new money, certain sensibilities, the way you speak, what your parents give you, YOUR EDUCATION (education is much more dividing here than in Canada. Oxbridge, all that BS) etc. I liked myself so much more before I understood the British class system. I hate the way I now categorise people and see the world. I wish I could see the world like an innocent Canadian again! We are a lot less divided by class, and it's one of the worst things about Britain.

Alice got an exclusive campaign!!!😭😭😭👏👏👏

Older than most commenters, I think, but I wonder about 'the creatives gentrifying' cities...don't disagree or anything, but my educated, employed adult children literally can't afford to leave home, and most of my friends' and their families are in the same situation. Gen X parents with Gen Y & Z kids; so, I have a different view, I think. I wonder about inter-generational homes and their affect on things. I read Florida but I don't remember him anticipating it. I suspect it's a big deal. Even a lot of influencers live with their parents.

Do the authors mention that the "creative class" manly exists in developed countries? Excellent video btw 😄

"There are enough giants; there are not enough you," says a Go Daddy ad during this video. Translation: Go get a website and play with the other children wanting to be creative, because the giants have rigged the game and want to distract you with a romanticized creative life, a life where you will own little and be expected to be happy with that new order of things. Due largely to tacit class attributes, some will prosper in this precarious "creative" ecosphere and placed on pedestals to act as sirens beckoning the hungry and the hopeful, thereby establishing unspoken rules that blame the "losers" for not "making it." "Quit your whining and complaining. We gave you a website," decry the giants.

We all have Main Character Syndrome because our voices were never heard and now we’ve torn our vocal cords due to being overexposed.

Great video. I studied landscape architecture and graphic design - on my first course (south europe) I learned a lot about city layouts and philosophies and on my second one I went to art school in the UK. I quickly learned that class in the UK is just incomprehensible but apart from that I wish that some topics like access to art education in relation to wealth where touched upon. Rich kids going to art school to cosplay being a starving artist is something I never though I'd see but it happened loads, especially in London. This is why I kinda understand what that guy in the beginning said. Yes they were also paying rent and getting in "debt" by going to uni but some of us were working 2 jobs to get a degree and they were driving BMWs 💀

Hi Alice - thank you for this and other videos on your channel! :) They help me think along with you and slowly start to unravel so many confusing inner feelings and negative thoughts that have grown within my mind over time. I've just started therapy working on my constant self-doubting and low self-esteem. I've also felt quite disconnected from society in the past few years because it seems like everyone's busy promoting something, hoping to become 'real influencers' instead of enjoying life, which is my personal focus. I have a blog, mostly for fun, and I'm slowly gathering a small audience of like-minded people. Yet, while I enjoy the creative process of making content, I absolutely lose myself and my confidence when it comes to marketing myself. Eventually, I end up feeling... fake. Things like the compulsive need for aesthetics everywhere, the constant promotion of seemingly every single moment of life, promoting the monetization of your hobbies - all of that makes me angry because I can't find my place in it all. It's difficult to grow without losing your genuine self - and having low self-esteem in the meantime. As I said, your videos and the thought process you uncover and promote makes me feel like I can finally connect with something, understand why I feel like this. I'll continue my therapy and also try to learn about these concepts. Hopefully, I'll learn to understand and accept it and find ways how to exist among all that, without sacrificing my own well-being and esteem. Have a lovely day :)

The idea that creatives own the means of production because it’s in their head just isn’t true. As a creative you’re giving that away to the company you work for. Work contracts for creative jobs have a clause that transfers the copyright of (almost) anything you make under work time to the company. If copyright to the ideas you create is the means of production you certainly won’t own it when working for a boss..

The most creative at disguising the capitalist nature (therefore rot intentions) is rewarded and praised. This creative class are meant to be the show people are watching and desiring while companies continue to be companies domaining the leftovers of States.

The story you told about the girl who asked that question to the creator at that conference resonates so much with me. I actually remember listening to one of my favourite podcasts where the interviewer was discussing the launch of an exciting new apparel label that the athlete he was talking to had just launched. For a solid 15 minutes, this athlete went on and on about how the brand was all about empowerment, creative collaboration and the "team". At first I thought, "oh wow, someone doing well and sharing the good fortune with the local creatives in his community! cool!" -- but not even five minutes later, the host asked how we was able to compensate his "team". The athlete paused, and you could see the most awkward look on his face as he quietly replied, "we working on that part.." This athlete had the privilege of being on a major podcast, he had the attention and recognition from all kinds of brand sponsors, and his social media presence included photos of him wearing said apparel while driving around in a brand new Audi. It makes me sick to think about how many young, inspired and ambitious creatives fall into the trap of thinking that they're on "the team" when in reality, their talent, capabilities and time are just drained away in another form of exploitation. Alice, new here - but love your channel and I'm happy to have stumbled across it. Keep doing what you do!

This is interesting because with the rise of working from home, I feel like more and more young people, including creative people are moving away from more expensive cities to cheaper places, including to small towns, suburbs and even villages.

As an oversimplification, I would call these people "the barista class".

I hope you start a channel on French politics 😂 Things are seeming to get interesting. I wish I spoke French because I am fascinated by France’s current state of affairs! Anyways, time to watch the video!

Could you do a book recommodation video one day? I'd love to learn more about classes, capitalism, social structures,... but I don't know where to start 🙈

I'm surprised actually to see you getting a sponsor from The Guardian. But I like the idea of the video

Guardian reached out to you - what a compliment! And you cited them for journalistic sources - what a compliment!

I went a county fair this past summer and was more impressed by the creativity I witnessed in the local 4H Club showcase than with 95% of what is produced by the Creative Professional Caste.

The true creative has never followed someone else’s rules or felt the need to fit in. They live to create change and have died trying to realise their dreams. They are probably not on Instagram but they are still out there. And it will be one of them that unites a generation and turns this world around.

Just in response to the opening of the video… I think when discussing what constitutes “working class” (especially if you argue that high salary, educated professionals in offices still work for a company and a salary without owning a company, land, or a home and are therefore working class) at least in modern day society, it would be wise to take a look at choice of profession. Or the concept of having a choice. On one hand you have those who have the option of looking at a wide variety of professions, industries, and concepts and exploring which they may want to pursue. Even at a young age. Who have the support and finances to gain an education in their profession of choice, and the connections (even if just through their educational institution) to pursue it as a paying job. I feel like most of the creative class in the modern sense fall under this category. Yes, they still work. Yes, the reality of their jobs may not be as free or fulfilling as they thought it would be. Yet still, they had many choices. But the working class may be defined by those who take whatever job they can get. Usually factory or customer service, jobs with low pay and high turnover and less of a threshold to obtain. Jobs a person chooses less out of desire and more out of necessity. Jobs the creative class or middle class might do for a summer as a student for extra spending money but the working class needs to keep a roof over their head or the heads of their family. They choose as well, from the limited amount of jobs with similar structures (manual labor or front line service) but their choices may be more limited. And they may not have an opportunity to pursue a creative job in the first place, rather than be disillusioned once they have it. I agree the middle class is disappearing and upward mobility is stagnating. Absolutely. But I also don’t think society (of the last 30 years at least) can be divided into just the haves and have nots. Even amongst the have nots there are degrees and I can see how the modern day incarnation of a creative class is not on the lowest end.

If you have an arts degree and live in a city where your idea of a hard day's work is paying £1,500 a month for a room, drinking Oat Milk flat whites and having to work overtime on a brand project, you ain't working class. Being in a creative job is a middle class pipe dream with lots of people competing for a handful of top roles. It's generally a rigged game. Everyone I know who made it in film production had a friend or relative get them in. There is definitely a secret slave labour economy of desperate middle class kids making coffee and fetching sushi in Soho for agencies in post houses paying through the nose for sound design on their commercial, but the only kids who can afford to be runners at 12K a year, are rich and living with their parents. The difference between the struggle of the "creative class" vs the working class, is it's entirely voluntary for the creatives. You enter the game knowing it's incredibly tough and competitive. It's an option available to you and you can tap out when you want. Someone on minimum wage in small town england working a factory didn't choose that life. They're not chasing the dream of being a famous factory worker. Also you've conflated different types of "creative" roles. It's funny you use graphic design as your example, when that's an incredibly precise and workman-like form of art. Nothing like, say, an abstract oil painter trying to find a job. Fact is, creativity is synonymous with freedom, and the moment you're being paid and meeting a brief and deadlines, the freedom is removed and instantly the work feels less creative.

When you said commodification of creativity i just remembered this. I love writing and storytelling. I write things since i learned how to write and i have a handful of novel drafts that i work on. I don't want them to get published or something, 'cause i write them for myself, but my mom occasinally says, i see you writing all the time but we never saw a resolution, a finished work, the people in your age got their work already published etc. (im 18 the people she meant are wattpad writers but she has no idea how low the quality of those novels as she never read them but i did and to publish something like that i prefer to die honestly.)

I’m a part of the “creative class“ and I spend almost 65% of my income on rent. I live in a large urban center that is designed specifically to attract “creative class“ young people, yet nearly the entire supply of housing, or studio space, is owned by a small handful of people. That’s hardly “owning the means of production”.

This video saved me a couple of months of therapy. Thank you.

I love the Guardian. It's nice to see they're supporting the small guys. Je te félicite!

I am almost certified to be a music therapist. It allows me to be extremely creative in music without the pressures of stage performance while still following the guidelines of healthcare. I get to help people become healthy through the power of music, and that balance works for me.

Fascinating brain food as always! The organisation and succinctness of your videos is always so inspiring (especially as someone searching desperately for motivation to write essays for uni lol) 💛

loved this 💕

"The Guardian is free from political or commercial influence" As a leftist: No. Just no.

Very happy to see your channel grow. Next milestone 200k! Lets go!

It's crazy how I found this channel 9 months ago when you had something like 10-20k subscribers and now you have 115k! It's like finding an unknown band you like and then watching them get big. Here's to another 115k. Edit: sorry i'm kind of stoned love from IRE (insert flag)

I love this, and love that you used Sally Rooney quotes to illustrate it since I think Dublin is a really prominent example of how the goalposts for young people to be “successful” are always changing

RU-vidrs are the new MLMs. But we live in a world where feminism and creativity are marketing tools.

I have been thinking about this for a while now and you put it into words in a way that I can never manage. I am a software engineer and I kinda count as a "creative class" and I had to move to a big city because there are no opportunities in the smaller ones. Therefore, all the other young people go there too. So in order to have a social life or work, you have to move to a big city and have to pay those rents because you have no other option. It is not a fair playing field either. People who grow up in those cities always have more freedom to be "creatives" because they don't have to think about rent or living costs, while people like me, have to save up money to be able to move there in the first place. I couldn't get a job because I couldn't afford it so I had to go for a corporate job. People who have "cool" jobs are usually privileged people from the get-go. So even though with my Starbucks and expensive (and could crumble down on me any moment) apartment I look like I live a fancy life, I literally have no other choice if I want to be a part of the society. So yeah, this video explains my frustrations so well. It also introduced a lot of new points of view to me, so thank you!

As someone who is watching on an alternate account because I started watching your videos today as a background noise to slowly drink myself into oblivion to because I love the way your brain works, but wanted to comment anonymously, thank you. I struggle with heavy depression, and a lot of days I don't know if I want to keep pushing myself to get out of bed, but people like you give me a reason. You make me realize that I'm not alone as someone who spends far too much time in my own head philosophizing. That sees the state of the world as a heavily saddening thing that desperately needs change, but also has no idea how to make it happen. There are far too many people willing to exploit others in the world to properly execute any meaningful change as of now.

your videos cover so many topics that im currently thinking about. thanks for that👍

Funny I was just reading this in Capital Vol 1 (p. 546) yesterday: "The essential division is that between workers who are actually employed on the machines (among whom are included few who look after the engine) and those who merely attend them (almost exclusively children). More or less all the 'feeders' who supply the machines with the material which is to be worked up are counted as attendants. In addition to these two principal classes, there is a numerically unimportant group whose occupation it is to look after the whole of the machinery and repair it from time to time, composed of engineers, mechanics, joiners etc. This is a superior class of workers, in part scientifically educated, in part trained in a handicraft; they stand outside the realm of the factory workers, And are added to them only to make up an aggregate (footnote 99)*" *It is characteristic of the English intention to deceive by use of statistics (..) that the English factory legislation expressly excludes from its area of competence, as being 'not factory workers', the class of workers last mentioned, while the 'Returns' published by Parliament just as expressly include in the category of factory workers not only engineers, mechanics, etc. But also managers, salesman, messengers, warehousemen, packers etc., In short everybody except the owner of the factory himself."

So glad someone has FINALLY talked about this and put it to words!

I was putting away my laundry and kept hearing you say "Flo-rida's book" and was like, "When did the rapper Flo-Rida put out a book about the working class?" Then I saw the subtitles said Florida. I'm not sure how is name is actually pronounced, he's from NJ but I doubt it is pronounced as Americans pronounce the state Florida. Perhaps, it is pronounced Flo-Rida as you do. I'm not uhhh negging or poking fun at your pronounciation, just sharing this long string of thoughts I had because of it. I'm dealing with a break-through COVID case right now and am prob delirious.

We've been making a living from our creativity for 25+ years. The two things you have to get straight are the spaces to create your work, and the space to exhibit and sell. You need control of both, in order to develop your work, and you also need time. If you start out in artist's cooperatives, you learn a lot about how the middle class creatives use these spaces to socialize with each other, and build up their own mythos. Let's be clear, these people are NOT more creative than other people. Some of them may be talented, but these spaces are another kind of business that has nothing to do with creativity. They are highly conformist and controlling over the work of others. So, yes, rent is a huge factor because space is part of the means of production. If you're working class, too much of your time is already accounted for. You won't truly be welcome in those middle class creative spaces. Your personal creativity will suffer and you may even lose your mind.

You have quite the amazing content as always. I literally took a course called "Creative Industries" that bring up this issue. What i've personally theorized is that there seems to be an evolution to this weird middle ground class. In the colonial times they were the "Merchant Class" then evolved into the "Middle Class" or the "Intellectual Class". Now Richard Florida calls it the "Creative Class" or the "Creative Manegerial Class" as Gary called it. But I believe Marx did actually refer to the weird middle class separate from the working class, but pretty "lazy," yet remarkably self-sufficient in managing their way through life (at the expense of others). EDIT: this class of people find ways to make a living while leaving everyone else in the dust. The opposite to Karl Marx/Robin Hood you could say. Steal from the rich, but keep it to yourselves.

I think one of the reasons that "bobos" have attracted so much hate from workers is that at work like in their politics they have tended to be socially liberal but to side with the boss on economics. It seems to be slowly changing. We will see. I know I am on my way to moving to that class because my working class family did get to buy a house in the economic boom after the war and my father got a better job at a Union after being fired from his factory job back in the days. So I get to move up while others don't, but I am not at all interested in maintaining this bs economic system. I don't seem to be the only one.

I am honestly shook at the guardian sponsorship!!! I LOVE the guardian and I'm happy that they're supporting creators like you

I learnt so much! Definitely need to revisit this video again

Omg you’re sponsored by ‘The Guardian’? Félicitations, Alice!

Can we talk about how that lit candle was initially sitting precariously on top of a stack of books on your fridge?

I’m obsessed with your videos. So good!

Every video you make is perfect! You have such an unique voice as a commentary channel, I am so happy I came across your channel

You're so correct about young people moving to these cities purely for the experience. I think there's just no social life after college, and young adults have no other form of a community these days. So they move to the cities in pursuit of things 'happening'. I went to school in NYC for the past 2 years, this year I'm commuting. So I speak from experience; my social life is trash this year. The thing is, as an artist, now I have more time to dedicate to my work, and on top of that I have been working 30-35 hours a week to actually accumulate funds/upgrade my gear. Two things I couldn't do while living in the city. I guess the thesis of this comment is that the path for creatives in the 2020's is a lonely one.

Is there any concept or idea of bringing creativity back into rural areas? This "moving to the city to get away from the dumb people" is kind of a self perpetuating cycle isnt it? If young, creative people just stayed in the countrysde there'd be nothing to get away from... any idea or concept how that could work? And I mean ofc thats just one puzzle piece of a bigger problem... But still, this is particularly interesting to me :) like how do we make the country more attractive as a place to live in general

Hi Alice, I discovered your channel yesterday and had to watch all of your videos. I wanna thank you for your great content ❤️ you are such an inspiration. Greetings from Brasil 🇧🇷

This video was a an eye-opener to me, especially because I look up to the internet life and idealize it lol. I really enjoy your videos and I love how you integrate your sources! I’ll check out the Guardian’s magazines. It also made me think about how a lot of the creative class are pressured to either be their own boss/entrepreneurs or work for a big company or else it isn’t as “cool”, being creative for work. This puts a lot of social pressure on the creators/workers and unfortunately I think lots of them end up being in a complicated position between loving their jobs and getting burnt out over it, but with thousands, if not millions, of various peoples eyes and viewpoints on them. That reminds me of an older video of yours, I don’t remember the title though. What I do remember is your analogy of the creator/influencer being in a prison or a box. Anyways great work!

I like your content a lot. I would be very interested in a video on the response of the cultural superstructure to the change from a neoliberal system to a neo-feudal system. how is art going to respond to the latest reterritorialization of economic and social system that is currently going on (as well as the movement towards a system of serf related capitalism). Also what do you say to the Guardian's response to Jeremy corbyn ( which figures such as Zizek has responded to).

Ive always considered the creative class as "working class" in the economic sense. Socially, "working class" actually spans a wide range of economic class.

congrats on the sponsor! This video really captures my anxiety about doing creative work online and consequently living in a financially precarious situation. (comparing other jobs I am capable of doing) As I witness the juncture where, in my country, we only start to consume creativity on social media on a massive scale, I aspire to devote myself to producing creative work, especially social commentary, and at the same time, have little knowledge of the financial downside because of the glamourization of such creativity. The doom and frustration at the possibility of me pursuing the online creator career becomes more and more salient when I find so many creators with popularity totally incommensurate with their excellent content quality. The cutthroat competitiveness in this industry is so often hidden, to the point where at least in my country, social media is merely viewed as either a platform of connecting people or a place where people can gain a big chunk of money and live an affluent lifestyle, rather than a competitive market with the same income disparity with other parts of the world.

That's a very interesting topic!! Somehow the trend in China is really different where young people (including influencers) define themselves as "the working class" by calling themselves "打工人" or "people who work for others". Although it is used as sarcasm, it deff shows the mentality of anxiety, lack of leisure and less self-orientation at work in the working culture in China right now. Some young Chinese are trying to escape the status of "working for others" by moving back to their hometowns, starting their own business or simply "lying flat".

half the people are saying that artists aren’t paid enough for their work, and the other half saying it sucks that creativity is being capitalised. Am I missing something?

Woooww The Guardian as a sponsor is in my eyes something to be proud of :D

I work behind a bar for a living. That could be a creative job. Looking for new cocktails, bar snacks etc, but all the creativity is taken out of the job to recreate the same drink over and over again so that it can be consumed.

loved this one! a lot of food for thought

This video is a fraternal twin to Kidology's "Creative Work" Is Not a Thing and I love it!

10:15 yo that's literally my job lmao i've felt some shame in having a very routine repetitive job as a designer bc of the lack of prestige but i genuinely enjoy it when im not thinking about what other ppl might say about my job

Okay but the quality and editing of you videos is getting better and better!

Great video ! Your videos always inspire me to learn more :)

Graham S. advice for coffee is fine (of course he will sell you his brand of coffee for a price - a true capitalist that one) but to sit home and sit on a pile of money for retirement that you may or may not see; sounds like a trade-off many would be foolish to take. Traveling ( and spending money) in your 20's or traveling when you are 60+ are completely different experiences. Gen Z and Gen Y have mostly figured this out and are forgoing the traditional Married, Kids, House, Work, Save, Retire template. Everyone should strike their own balance but memories of vacations with friends and family are ultimately what you have left at the end of your life.

no don't cut the salut! out

Alice this is once again, so interesting. Thank you!

Terrific! Exactly what’s been on my mind the past few years.