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Value to the yachting class is not the same thing as value to society. Value to the psychopathic dictator buying billions in weapons for his country is not the

Value to the yachting class is not the same thing as value to society. Value to the psychopathic dictator buying billions in weapons for his country is not the same thing as value to society. Value to Exxon is not the same thing as value to every living creature on the planet. What Graeber did was look at the net balance. I recommend you look more into it, because your interpretation of what he and I are saying is way off. > By the way, being to conplain about the metaphysical nature and philosophocal meaning of a day job is one of the highest privileges a person can have. Did your boss tell you that? Look at a graph of productivy versus wages over the last 50 years. We should be working 15 hours a week, like our prehistoric ancestors did. We're killing the planet. Thousands of species are being lost. Infinite growth is a lie that is literally going to kill us. It has to stop. This isn't metaphysical or philosophical, it's life and death.

hef19898 3y ago
If you look at my comment history, you will see that I am, by US standards, borderline communist. I am also realist enough, to acknowlwdge the fact that people have to earn a living through work (we don't have the utopia Star Trek is showing, and even if we did I am sure reality would be more like The Expanse), and to see that, so far, a tamed version of capitalism provided, on average, the best outcome. And that means that not ever single person has the luxury to get all the meabing from a job needed to pay the bills. Heck, that was the case throughout history, the deffinition of BS is all that differed. And no, nothing we do in the Western World, or the vast majority, is life and death. Theat is reserved for people suffering war, civil or otherwise, famine and rampant crime. Or people suffering through deregulated, unconstraint capitalism (which, I know, applies to people in the US for example, people that don't hold jobs that make up the majority of HN users so). So yes, this whole BS job thing is, IMHO, highly dubious. Edit: Our pre-historic ancestors worked more than 15 hours, and they faced constant death by stuff we don't even blink about anymore. If Graebers counter point to modern office work, aka BS jobs, is pre-historic hunter-gatherer lifestyle this whole thing gets even more rediciulous. Fun fact, no hunter gatherer could earn a living writing books about other peoples societies and lives.

hef19898 3y ago

If you look at my comment history, you will see that I am, by US standards, borderline communist. I am also realist enough, to acknowlwdge the fact that people have to earn a living through work (we don't have the utopia Star Trek is showing, and even if we did I am sure reality would be more like The Expanse), and to see that, so far, a tamed version of capitalism provided, on average, the best outcome. And that means that not ever single person has the luxury to get all the meabing from a job needed to pay the bills. Heck, that was the case throughout history, the deffinition of BS is all that differed. And no, nothing we do in the Western World, or the vast majority, is life and death. Theat is reserved for people suffering war, civil or otherwise, famine and rampant crime. Or people suffering through deregulated, unconstraint capitalism (which, I know, applies to people in the US for example, people that don't hold jobs that make up the majority of HN users so). So yes, this whole BS job thing is, IMHO, highly dubious. Edit: Our pre-historic ancestors worked more than 15 hours, and they faced constant death by stuff we don't even blink about anymore. If Graebers counter point to modern office work, aka BS jobs, is pre-historic hunter-gatherer lifestyle this whole thing gets even more rediciulous. Fun fact, no hunter gatherer could earn a living writing books about other peoples societies and lives.