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Ask someone who they are, and they will often tell you what they do for a living. For generations, work has given people not just an income but an identity. If AI takes over much of that work, and people have more free time than working time, the question becomes existential: what gives life purpose when a job no longer does?

What we already know

• Keynes saw it coming. In his 1930 essay Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren, John Maynard Keynes predicted that technology would cut the working week to around 15 hours. He thought the real challenge would not be economic, but how people would use their freedom to live wisely and well.
• What a job gives us beyond money. In the 1930s, Marie Jahoda and her colleagues studied Marienthal, an Austrian village where almost everyone lost their job when the local factory closed. Later, Jahoda described what work provides almost by accident: a structure to the day, contact with people outside the family, a sense of shared purpose, status and identity, and regular activity. Losing them hurt as much as losing the wages.

The lesson is that income alone is not enough. A good post-work society would have to provide these things deliberately.

Ideas to explore

• Valuing care and community work. Recognising, and perhaps paying for, caring for others, volunteering and community roles.
• Civic or national service. Structured roles that give people purpose and connect them across social divides.
• A job guarantee. Offering meaningful paid work to anyone who wants it, rather than cash alone.
• A shorter working week. Sharing the remaining work more widely, so more people keep a role.
• Lifelong learning, arts and sport. Investing in the places and institutions where people create, learn and meet.

Open questions

• Is the link between work and identity natural, or a habit we could change?
• What can we learn from people who already live without paid work, such as retirees, carers and artists?
• Should purpose be left to individuals, or is it a job for public policy?
• How do we avoid a society split between people with meaningful work and people without?

This pillar is just beginning. Share your thoughts, experiences and ideas in the comments.