Bullshit Jobs: A Theory
by David Graeber
Rating: 5.0 / 5 · Read · Finished 2020-07-25
This gets to the heart of a feeling I’ve had since roughly my freshman year in college (2014). Why do politicians love to talk about “creating jobs”? Shouldn’t we try to increase productivity and automation to remove the need for jobs entirely? Or at least reduce our working hours?
The book starts out a little simplistic and space-filling, then halfway through gets very theoretical and philosophical. Not a hard read and definitely worth it.
Ch 1 what is a bullshit job?
- If eliminated, it makes no difference or makes things better.
- The worker agrees their job is pointless.
- There is a pretense that their work is actually needed.
Ch. 2 what sorts of bullshit Jobs are there?
- Flunkies make their superiors look good. Door men. Secretaries.
- Goons compete with other goons. Lawyers. Advertising.
- Duct tapers keep broken systems running. Cleaners. Proof readers. Systems integration. Data entry.
- Box tickers make the organization look like it’s doing something. Fact finding commissions. Due diligence. Compliance. Formatting attractive reports.
- Taskmasters assign work to others
Ch 3. Why do those in bullshit jobs regularly report themselves unhappy?
- Purposelessness. Falseness. Being scammed into scamming others. Humans like agency as a fundamental. It’s why we play and make art. Humans naturally work in bouts, not continuously. Buying someone’s time is a new concept.
Ch 4 what is it like to hold a bullshit job
- Scriptlessness. No guidance on how much to pretend
- Purposelessness
- Having no effect
- Not feeling entitled to misery
- Being forced to trick people or forced to force people to do billshit to earn welfare
Ch. 5 Why are bullshit jobs proliferating
- Agriculture workers decrease. Knowlede workers increase.
- Government has incentive to create jobs, lower unemployment
- Made possible by increased productivity, but not increasing wages
- Managerial feudalism: power holders delgate work and power, who also delegate work and power, etc.
Ch 6. Why do we as a society not object to the growth of pointless employment
- Moralistic. Hard working is good, lazy is bad. Seen in Puritanism, Methodists.
Ch 7. What are the political effects of bullshit jobs, and is there anything that can be done about the situation?
- Both left and right politicians are for hard work, even at bullshit jobs. The “liberal elite” get hate because they get to do fulfilling work and get paid for it. Author is an anarchist.
- UBI would decouple work from survival.
Types of jobs the author the author gives as examples of “bullshit”: Professional Managerial Clerical Sales Corporate lawyer Foreign currency speculator Marketing researcher Telemarketing Insurance claims adusters