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Forum Post: Bullshit Jobs

Posted 10 years ago on Aug. 22, 2013, 9:20 a.m. EST by equibble (34) from East Point, GA
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From and article in Strike Magazine by David Graeber:

“. . . there seems a general rule that, the more obviously one’s work benefits other people, the less one is likely to be paid for it. . . .

“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 for paralysing London during contract disputes: the very fact that tube workers can paralyse London shows that their work is actually necessary, but this seems to be precisely what annoys people. It’s even clearer in the US, where Republicans have had remarkable success mobilizing resentment against school teachers, or auto workers (and not, significantly, against the school administrators or auto industry managers who actually cause the problems) for their supposedly bloated wages and benefits. It’s as if they are being told “but you get to teach children! Or make cars! You get to have real jobs! And on top of that you have the nerve to also expect middle-class pensions and health care?

“If someone had designed a work regime perfectly suited to maintaining the power of finance capital, it’s hard to see how they could have done a better job. Real, productive workers are relentlessly squeezed and exploited. The remainder are divided between a terrorised stratum of the, universally reviled, unemployed and a larger stratum who are basically paid to do nothing, in positions designed to make them identify with the perspectives and sensibilities of the ruling class (managers, administrators, etc) – and particularly its financial avatars – but, at the same time, foster a simmering resentment against anyone whose work has clear and undeniable social value. . . .”

http://www.strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/08/the-rise-of-bullshit-jobs.html

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[-] 1 points by equibble (34) from East Point, GA 10 years ago

Graeber rocks!