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I used to think this as well until I read Bullshit Jobs. The point Graeber makes very well is that as jobs have gotten automated a way they have been replaced b

I used to think this as well until I read Bullshit Jobs. The point Graeber makes very well is that as jobs have gotten automated a way they have been replaced by a huge number of meaningless office jobs. And this isn’t based on him judging particular jobs as pointless but rather a huge number of people writing to him and explaining just how pointless their jobs are. So why don’t these people quit their jobs? Because a lot of nonsense jobs pay well and people don’t want to be unemployed because society is not setup to pay people to not work. Yet society is ironically happy to pay people to do nonsense. Economists have a hard time believing this can be true. Things like efficient market theory suggests that companies want to be as efficient as possible. Yet they fail to see the tribal nature of humans. That is partly what Graeber exposes: How many CEOs will keep around people they don’t need because what is the point of being a boss of you got nobody to boss around? CEOs are a bit like kings of old. Importance is shown through the number of retainers you have. And often it is just self preservation. When management realize their whole division is full of people with no useful tasks to do they realize that they themselves risk getting fired. Why have managers and VPs if there are nobody to manage?

skybrian 5y ago
I don’t doubt such jobs exist, though I haven’t read the book. I don’t know how prevalent they are, though? A sibling comment casts some doubt on it [1]. But what we can say, thanks to the pandemic, is that many parents and children are very unhappy when schools close, and that there is a shortage of medical staff. There also seem to be shortages of various kinds of workers that are “essential” but not well-paid. Arguably they should be paid better. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29195047 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29195047
andrekandre 5y ago
> That is partly what Graeber exposes: How many CEOs will keep around people they don’t need because what is the point of being a boss of you got nobody to boss around? i've literally seen this in action: managers jockeying for promotion hire as many workers or contractors as they can get, bloating their teams to prove who can "manage more people" best... the result? you guessed it: bullshit jobs

skybrian 5y ago

I don’t doubt such jobs exist, though I haven’t read the book. I don’t know how prevalent they are, though? A sibling comment casts some doubt on it [1]. But what we can say, thanks to the pandemic, is that many parents and children are very unhappy when schools close, and that there is a shortage of medical staff. There also seem to be shortages of various kinds of workers that are “essential” but not well-paid. Arguably they should be paid better. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29195047 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29195047

andrekandre 5y ago

> That is partly what Graeber exposes: How many CEOs will keep around people they don’t need because what is the point of being a boss of you got nobody to boss around? i've literally seen this in action: managers jockeying for promotion hire as many workers or contractors as they can get, bloating their teams to prove who can "manage more people" best... the result? you guessed it: bullshit jobs