Those who engage in refusal of work break one of the most powerful social norms of contemporary society. Hence they frequently receive harassment from people, sometimes irrespective of whether they made the choice to leave work behind or not. In
Nazi Germany the so-called, "work-shy" individuals were rounded up and imprisoned in
Nazi concentration camps as
black triangle prisoners in the so-called "
Aktion Arbeitsscheu Reich".
Other derogatory terms and their history Cynic philosophical school Cynicism (), in its original form, refers to the beliefs of an ancient
school of Greek philosophers known as the Cynics (, ). Their philosophy was that the
purpose of life was to live a life of
Virtue in agreement with
Nature. This meant rejecting all conventional desires for
wealth,
power,
health, and
fame, and by living a
simple life free from all possessions. They believed that the world belonged equally to everyone, and that
suffering was caused by false judgments of what was valuable and by the worthless
customs and
conventions which surrounded
society. – depicted by
Jean-Léon Gérôme The first philosopher to outline these themes was
Antisthenes, who had been a pupil of
Socrates in the late 5th century BCE. He was followed by
Diogenes of Sinope, who lived in a tub on the streets of
Athens. Diogenes took Cynicism to its
logical extremes, and came to be seen as the archetypal Cynic philosopher. He was followed by
Crates of Thebes who gave away a large fortune so he could live a life of Cynic poverty in Athens. Cynicism spread with the rise of
Imperial Rome in the 1st century, and Cynics could be found begging and preaching throughout the cities of the
Empire. It finally disappeared in the late 5th century, although many of its
ascetic and
rhetorical ideas were adopted by
early Christianity. The name Cynic derives from the
Greek word κυνικός,
kynikos, "dog-like" and that from κύων,
kyôn, "
dog" (
genitive:
kynos). It seems certain that the word
dog was also thrown at the first Cynics as an insult for their shameless rejection of conventional manners, and their decision to live on the streets. Diogenes, in particular, was referred to as
the Dog.
"Slackers" The term
slacker is commonly used to refer to a person who avoids work (especially
British English), or (primarily in
North American English) an educated person who is viewed as an
underachiever. While use of the term
slacker dates back to about 1790 or 1898 depending on the source, it gained some recognition during the British
Gezira Scheme, when Sudanese labourers protested their relative powerlessness by working lethargically, a form of protest known as 'slacking'. The term achieved a boost in popularity after its use in the films
Back to the Future and
Slacker.
NEET NEET is an
acronym for the government classification for people currently "Not in
Employment,
Education or
Training". It was first used in the
United Kingdom but its use has spread to other countries, including the
United States,
Japan,
China, and
South Korea. In the United Kingdom, the classification comprises people aged between 16 and 24 (some 16-year-olds are still of
compulsory education age). In Japan, the classification comprises people aged between 15 and 34 who are
unemployed, unmarried, not enrolled in school or engaged in
housework, and not seeking work or the technical training needed for work. The "NEET group" is not a uniform set of individuals but consists of those who will be NEET for a short time while essentially testing out a variety of opportunities and those who have major and often multiple
issues and are at long term risk of remaining disengaged. In
Brazil, "nem-nem" (short of
nem estudam nem trabalham (neither study nor work) is a term with similar meaning. In Spanish-speaking countries, "ni-ni" (short of
ni estudia ni trabaja) is also applied.
"Freeters" and parasite singles (other spellings below) is a Japanese expression for people between the age of 15 and 34 who lack full-time employment or are unemployed, excluding homemakers and students. They may also be described as
underemployed or
freelance workers. These people do not start a
career after
high school or
university but instead usually live as so-called
parasite singles with their parents and earn some money with low-skilled and low-paid jobs. The word
freeter or
freeta was first used around 1987 or 1988 and is thought to be an amalgamation of the English word
free (or perhaps
freelance) and the
German word
Arbeiter ("worker"). is a
Japanese term for a
single person who lives with their parents until their late twenties or early thirties in order to enjoy a carefree and comfortable life. In English, the expression "sponge" or "basement dweller" may sometimes be used. The expression is mainly used in reference to Japanese society, but similar phenomena can also be found in other countries worldwide. In
Italy, 30-something singles still relying on their mothers are joked about, being called
Bamboccioni (literally: grown-up babies) and in Germany they are known as
Nesthocker (German for an
altricial bird), who are still living at ''''. Such behaviour is considered normal in
Greece, both because of the traditional strong family ties and because of the
low wages.
Welfare queens A
welfare queen is a derogatory term for a person, almost exclusively female and usually a
single mother, who lives primarily from welfare and other public assistance funds. The term implies that the person collects welfare, charity, or other handouts either fraudulently or excessively and that the person intentionally chooses to live "on the dole" as opposed to seeking gainful employment, ostensibly due to laziness.
Vagrancy A
vagrant is derogatory term for a person in a situation of
poverty, who wanders from place to place without a
home or regular
employment or
income. Many
towns in the
developed world have
shelters for vagrants. Common terminology is a tramp or a 'gentleman of the road'. Laws against vagrancy in the
United States have partly been invalidated as violative of the
due process clauses of the
U.S. Constitution. However, the FBI report on crime in the United States for 2005 lists 24,359 vagrancy violations.
"Hobos", "tramps", and "bums" . A
hobo is a
migratory worker or homeless
vagabond, often
penniless. The term originated in the
western—probably
northwestern—United States during the last decade of the 19th century. Unlike
tramps, who worked only when they were forced to, and bums, who did not work at all, hobos were workers who wandered. In
British English and traditional
American English usage, a tramp is a long term
homeless person who travels from place to place as an itinerant
vagrant, traditionally walking or
hiking all year round. While some tramps may do odd jobs from time to time, unlike other temporarily homeless people they do not seek out regular work and support themselves by other means such as
begging or
scavenging. This is in contrast to: •
bum, a stationary homeless person who does not work, and who begs or steals for a living in one place. • hobo, a homeless person who travels from place to place looking for work, often by "
freighthopping", illegally catching rides on freight trains •
Schnorrer, a
Yiddish term for a person who travels from city to city begging. Both terms, "tramp" and "hobo" (and the distinction between them), were in common use between the 1880s and the 1940s. Their populations and the usage of the terms increased during the
Great Depression. Like "hobo" and "bum", the word "tramp" is considered vulgar in
American English usage, having been
subsumed in more polite contexts by words such as "homeless person." In
colloquial American English, the word "tramp" can also mean a sexually
promiscuous female or even
prostitute. Tramps used to be known
euphemistically in
England and Wales as "gentlemen of the road". Tramp is derived from the
Middle English as a verb meaning to "walk with heavy footsteps", and to go hiking.
Bart Kennedy, a self-described tramp of 1900 US, once said "I listen to the tramp, tramp of my feet, and wonder where I was going, and why I was going." == See also ==