On the phenomenon of bullshit jobs

What is the point of FMCG marketing people? Do they really serve a purpose in society or do they just funnel funds from the competitive process (which as a whole might be productive) into different hands, including their own. There are some positive externalities like television, but that kind of incidental value is hard to find meaning in.

How about all the lawyers playing zero sum games? Social media people for office supply companies? Paparazzi? Are reward programs offering blenders in exchange for credit card miles really necessary?

I think the point he's making is somewhat valid, especially from a personal intuitive perspective. The wider question is can society work differently? Can we trade work for leisure? Can we find self definitions and motivation outside of work?

You’re an anthropology professor, what’s the ‘need’ for that?” (And indeed a lot of tabloid readers would take the existence of my job as the very definition of wasteful social expenditure.)

Yes, yes, if you disagree with our good professor here then you must be a tabloid-reading simpleton. A person of any sophistication would easily recognize the value of this largely fact-free critique of capitalism. Where capitalism is represented by the academia, the most competitive of industries.

Once, when contemplating the apparently endless growth of administrative responsibilities in British academic departments

The whole thing is nothing but ideological signalling.

if 1% of the population controls most of the disposable wealth, what we call “the market”

This is a profound psychological violence here. How can one even begin to speak of dignity in labour

Even more perverse, there seems to be a broad sense that this is the way things should be. This is one of the secret strengths of right-wing populism. You can see it when tabloids whip up resentment against tube workers

Let me just say (before I go back to reading Daily Mail and bashing teachers) that I can totally understand why he spent so much time thinking about bullshit jobs.

-- http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/21/troops-of-t...

> The military is innately hierarchical, yet it nurtures a camaraderie in part because the military looks after its employees. This is a rare enclave of single-payer universal health care, and it continues with a veterans’ health care system that has much lower costs than the American system as a whole.

-- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/opinion/16kristof.html?_r=...

I'm surprised this isn't obvious to most people.

I also find libertarian soldiers extremely amusing.

Because life is better that way.

The employer/employee relationship is incredibly biased. A lot of people simply cannot afford to lose their job, whereas pretty much every employer can afford to fire almost any individual. This means people are willing to work for little pay, poor benefits and no vacation because they are effectively forced to, even though everyone would be better off if everyone was forced to take vacation