On work

[Typhoon]

Reason | Bullsh*t jobs - Why do so many modern jobs seem pointless

During the last century, everyone from John Maynard Keynes to The Jetsons predicted that in the future, technological advances would drastically cut down the number of hours the average person would need to work to keep the economy going. Why didn't that happen?

In Bullshit Jobs, David Graeber, an anthropologist at the London School of Economics, suggests it did happen. Not that people are working fewer hours, but that fewer of those hours are actually needed.

Graeber argues that much, perhaps most, of the waged labor in the world's industrialized nations consists of "bullshit jobs": jobs that are "so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify [their] existence." These are not to be confused with "lavender jobs," which are unpleasant and poorly paid but often produce some obviously useful good or service. On the contrary, bullshit jobs may be well-paid and fairly easy, yet people nevertheless tend to find them extremely demoralizing, as evidenced by testimonials Graeber has collected from workers around the world. Contrary to the widespread presumption that people seek maximum financial return for minimum effort, Graeber finds that people will often quit a bullshit job for a lower-paying and more labor-intensive one if the latter offers greater scope for meaningful personal agency.

[noddy]

the problem with this problem is that its quite a problem to get from here to there.

soma and virtual reality will probably be the solution.

[Simple Minded]

maybe the rise is autism is caused by bullshit jobs?

solution maybe to get soma approved by the AMA as a marketable vaccine.

[noddy]

for the lefties its people who are uni educated deserve more, for the righties its people who sell/work more stuffs, doesnt matter, both sides have a good sense of who deserves more than the dude who sits in his room and smokes dope and masturbates.

without work, or without education, how doth one prove they aint a stoned wanker

[Miss_Faucie_Fishtits]

One thing about work if you are a conscientious person, is that it works on you.....'>........

I sat out my one a week job today rather than drive the thirty mile round trip on icy roads. My report there said, "fine" and I can make it up later in the week if it doesn't interfere with my other (two) jobs. It's irking me right now, it's not that bad and tomorrow doesn't look any better, probably worse. People who drove that road said it was bad and I'm a ninny when it comes to winter driving. Still, it bugs me.........

[noddy]

One thing about work if you are a conscientious person, is that it works on you.....'>........

I sat out my one a week job today rather than drive the thirty mile round trip on icy roads. My report there said, "fine" and I can make it up later in the week if it doesn't interfere with my other (two) jobs. It's irking me right now, it's not that bad and tomorrow doesn't look any better, probably worse. People who drove that road said it was bad and I'm a ninny when it comes to winter driving. Still, it bugs me.........

you work with real people so its not the work, its the person i suspect.

me personally, im always keen to declare a storm too dangerous to drive through and some countries would call my storms light rain

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

for the lefties its people who are uni educated deserve more, for the righties its people who sell/work more stuffs, doesnt matter, both sides have a good sense of who deserves more than the dude who sits in his room and smokes dope and masturbates.

without work, or without education, how doth one prove they aint a stoned wanker

Human capital vs. Commercial capital

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

My bullsH!t detector went up while leafing through this book a while back because it seemed to boil down to the human capital side of things passively-aggressively sniping at the commercial side (as usual) through anecdotes and lifting testimony off of internet message boards. Subtextually, the book is very much suggesting only the university can determine value. The adoption of corporate speak in academia, a pernicious problem undoubtedly, didn't seem to be addressed beyond, "Like, let the academics do what they want!" Very teenage riot stuff.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Meanwhile, everyone focuses on the work side of the equation, but the mortal wound is on the leisure/amateur side of things.

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That's not to minimize the make-work drudgery and the meaninglessness.

But white-collar workers can be awfully whiny about it. Especially when they haven't worked in a factory, or in retail or sanitation or on a farm actually shoveling sh!t.

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I dunno. Two things keep running through my mind.

One is very much from those very grateful for pretend work with a nice comfy chair, air condition, a good paycheck and lunch break and some benefits...

and the other is something noddy wrote a few months ago, to paraphrase, "the passive-aggressive office worker shall inherit the earth." I think it was something along those lines.

And both can be very true.

[Simple Minded]

or, the passive aggressive white collar info workers might inherit virtual reality, while the shite shovelers inherit reality reality (tm).

Separation between the Morlocks and Eloi might result in heaven on Earth.

kinda weird how the words virtue and virtual have almost nothing in common.......

lately, I've been thinking that every time my typing or grammar gets auto-corrected that I will leave it as "the gods in the machinery" defined it. Might be divine intervention, which probably shouldn't be f**ked with!

[noddy]

for the lefties its people who are uni educated deserve more, for the righties its people who sell/work more stuffs, doesnt matter, both sides have a good sense of who deserves more than the dude who sits in his room and smokes dope and masturbates.

without work, or without education, how doth one prove they aint a stoned wanker

Human capital vs. Commercial capital

swap the government for the catholic church and nothing much has changed for a long long time.