Standing argues that time is not just a personal resource but a deeply political one – structured, stolen, and distributed unequally by systems of power. He traces how industrial capitalism reduced time to labour, sidelining leisure, contemplation, and civic participation. Drawing on ancient Greek distinctions between types of time, Standing critiques the dominance of ‘labourism’ and the erosion of meaningful, self-directed activity. He calls for a progressive politics that reclaims time through communing, basic income, and democratic renewal – restoring autonomy, dignity, and collective purpose in an age of precarity and chronic uncertainty.