The study of the "bullshit jobs" phenomenon ought to be as central to modern economics as it is to modern economies. And yet it's almost ignored except for blog posts. Like the pileup of college administrators has to be documented, but ultimately taken for granted.
-
-
Show this threadThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
But if we didn't force people to work meaningless jobs, they might spend their time doing nothing useful!?
-
Agree with the general sentiment here, but let's not pretend 0 is a floor on the impact of how people spend their time.
-
0 is a floor when someone works a meaningless job?
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
that said, I suspect many of the poll responders really meant "meaningless to me the worker in a direct emotional sense" rather than "literally providing no benefit to society"
- 1 more reply
New conversation -
-
-
I've worked across several industries, and invariably, the "meaningless" jobs are beneficial for the organization - though frequently this is due to inadequate equilibria.
-
(But I'm unsure why you think we're not already rich enough for basic income, if only you could solve the calculation problem without creating the conflicting motives that create many inadequate equilibria in capitalism.)
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
I'm pretty sure many burger flippers and street sweepers rated their work meaningless; when not having to substitute them with robots saves us a lot of money. While many bulshitt workers probably think of themselves as pillars of their communities.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
Also overlaps with understaffing. Something is broken in the labor market
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
I find it strange when people suggest that those doing meaningful jobs might subsidize freeloaders, rather than share those meaningful jobs, so they can work less and others can contribute as well as collect.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
The meaningless work happens because the people doing meaningful work demand it. The alternative is not more meaningful work; it is the same people doing meaningful work, and the others not working. They find that unacceptable.
-
Of course, all this is just the long form of "if we eliminated the meaningless work we would be productive enough for Basic Income." The point is that Basic Income doesn't exist because the people doing meaningful work find it unacceptable.
-
If 37% of work is meaningless, at least cut standard hours and increase standard vacation times so that people can share the meaningful work.
-
UK already has much more vacation time than US. So they've already done this compared to Americans.
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
But the only reason we have an economy is because of bullshit jobs
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.