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In Bullshit Jobs Graeber terms our current system as "managerial feudalism". It's not capitalism in the same way Adam Smith or Marx envisioned, we don't have fi
by m-ee 4y ago
In Bullshit Jobs Graeber terms our current system as "managerial feudalism". It's not capitalism in the same way Adam Smith or Marx envisioned, we don't have firms brutally competing to generate the most value at the lowest cost. Instead we have a system of rent extraction largely done by a small number of powerful players. You don't need to be efficient to extract rent, so you end up with a court, or org chart in modern terms, of useless hangers on that mostly serve to demonstrate your wealth and power.
- urthor 4y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_oligarchy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_oligarchy I never realised Bullshit jobs was written by an actual academic. It's not a new idea.
- m-ee 4y agoThis seems overly pessimistic (unsurprising given that it’s written by an eventual fascist). Egalitarian societies do exist, but they take work to maintain. The Mondragon corporation functions as a cooperative despite its large size. I know less about it’s day to day organizing that I’d like to unfortunately, would be very interested to learn more.
- urthor 4y agoIt's something to be aware of. I think it's an underestimated aspect of why CEO's get paid the big bucks. They're paid money to not let this stupidity happen.