I soon found out that there was some kind of work always to be got, but

I also learned that it could just as quickly and easily be lost. The

uncertainty of being able to earn a regular daily livelihood soon

appeared to me as the gloomiest feature in this new life that I had

entered.

Although the skilled worker was not so frequently thrown idle on the

streets as the unskilled worker, yet the former was by no means

protected against the same fate; because though he may not have to face

hunger as a result of unemployment due to the lack of demand in the

labour market, the lock-out and the strike deprived the skilled worker

of the chance to earn his bread. Here the element of uncertainty in

steadily earning one's daily bread was the bitterest feature of the

whole social-economic system itself.