the 'precariat' is a sort of stillborn group, whose gestation is necessarily unfinished since one can work to consolidate it only to help its members flee from it, either by finding a haven in stable wage labour or by escaping from the world of work altogether (through social redistribution and state protection). Contrary to the proletariat in the Marxist vision of history, which is called upon to abolish itself in the long term by uniting and universalizing itself, the 'precariat' can only make itself to immediately unmake itself.
Loic Wacquant, Urban Outcasts












