Bullshit Jobs! By James Reed

     Forgive my French, but Bullshit Jobs is the title of a 2018 book by David Graeber. I do not have the money to buy books, and did not find this title in the city book store to speed read, but I did find some comments on Wiki, which is better than reading it. Here, bingo, instant karma, I mean summary:

“In Bullshit Jobs, American anthropologist David Graeber posits that the productivity benefits of automation have not led to a 15-hour workweek, as predicted by economist John Maynard Keynes in 1930, but instead to "bullshit jobs": "a form of paid employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence even though, as part of the conditions of employment, the employee feels obliged to pretend that this is not the case."
The author contends that more than half of societal work is pointless, both large parts of some jobs and, as he describes, five types of entirely pointless jobs:
1.    flunkies, who serve to make their superiors feel important, e.g., receptionists, administrative assistants, door attendants
2.    goons, who act aggressively on behalf of their employers, e.g., lobbyists, corporate lawyers, telemarketers, public relations specialists
3.    duct tapers, who ameliorate preventable problems, e.g., programmers repairing shoddy code, airline desk staff who calm passengers whose bags don't arrive
4.    box tickers, who use paperwork or gestures as a proxy for action, e.g., performance managers, in-house magazine journalists, leisure coordinators
5.    taskmasters, who manage—or create extra work for—those who don't need it, e.g., middle management, leadership professionals

Graeber argues that these jobs are largely in the private sector despite the idea that market competition would root out such inefficiencies. In companies, he concludes that the rise of service sector jobs owes less to economic need than to "managerial feudalism", in which employers need underlings to feel important and maintain competitive status and power.[1][2] In society, he credits the Puritan-capitalist work ethic for making the labor of capitalism into religious duty: that workers did not reap advances in productivity as a reduced workday because, as a societal norm, they believe that work determines their self-worth, even as they find that work pointless. Graeber describes this cycle as "profound psychological violence", "a scar across our collective soul".

In turn, rather than correcting this system, Graeber writes, individuals attack those whose jobs are innately fulfilling. Graeber holds that work as a source of virtue is a recent idea, that work was disdained by the aristocracy in classical times, but inverted as virtuous through radical philosophers like John Locke. The Puritan idea of virtue through suffering justified the toil of the working classes as noble.[2] And so, Graeber continues, bullshit jobs justify contemporary patterns of living: that the pains of dull work are suitable justification for the ability to fulfill consumer desires, and that fulfilling those desires is indeed the reward for suffering through pointless work. Accordingly, over time, the prosperity extracted from technological advances has been reinvested into industry and consumer growth for its own sake rather than the purchase of additional leisure time from work. Bullshit jobs also serve political ends, in which political parties are more concerned about having jobs than whether the jobs are fulfilling. In addition, he contends, populations occupied with busywork have less time to revolt.
As a potential solution, Graeber suggests universal basic income, a livable benefit paid to all without qualification, which would let people work at their leisure. The author credits a natural human work cycle of cramming and slacking as the most productive way to work, as farmers, fishers, warriors, and novelists vary in the rigor of work based on need for productivity, not the standard working hours, which can appear arbitrary when compared to cycles of productivity. Graeber contends that time not spent pursuing pointless work could instead be spent pursuing creative activities.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs

     Yes, no wonder the universities do not want students reading Wikipedia, it sure cuts through the crap and gives nice potted summaries. So, ok, jobs are terrible and disappearing anyway. But, the Universal Income idea, is vastly inferior to social credit, as argued at this site, lacking a foundational economic philosophy. Nevertheless, this book could be taken as one more argument in favour of the social credit alternative for the future, if there is one still, and if we retain the will to make one.