The idea of Universal Basic Income is wholly UnAmerican but possibly the only real solution to the coming age of automation, artificial intelligence and easy outsourcing . . .
Accordingly, one of our favorite local bloggers considers the questionable merits of the status quo and so many make-work jobs that currently provide a lackluster source of employment.
Money line . . .
LR Blog: "Dr. Graeber estimates that 40% of all jobs are bullshit jobs. If you think about it, his estimate may be conservative. How many jobs actually contribute to society? And Graeber points out the irony that how much jobs contribute to society is inversely proportional to the pay those who do those jobs receive. For example, teachers are paid far less than anyone in the finance industry. And yet we need teachers while the finance industry very nearly wrecked the world economy in 2008. Same with nurses, garbage collectors, bus drivers, and so on."
You decide . . .
I was a teacher. I worked with teachers in the KC School District.
ReplyDeleteTake them out of the equation. Very few where worth spit.
That means you too douche bag, “where worth it”. You must of been one of the dummies.
Delete^^^^You get what you (don't) pay for.
ReplyDelete"How many jobs actually contribute to society?" All of them, except for Dr. Graeber's.
ReplyDeleteA universal basic income is worth talking about, but ONLY IF it completely replaces the entire gigantic bureaucratic structure that is set up to dole out welfare payments to those who qualify and too often to those who don't.
bull-shitting is not philosophy nor rigorous sociology.
ReplyDeleteI know of a couple B.S. jobs starting with the mayor and the entire mayors office, city council and city manager.
ReplyDeleteWell,if Dr. Graeber said it then it must be true.I'm guessing that Dr. Graeber and this blogger have never worked real jobs. It's easy to sit in your ivory tower and criticize working folks who have b.s. jobs so they can support their families.
ReplyDeleteTeachers salary isn't bad when you consider they are off 3 months out of the year. A lot of people would take 42 grand with summers off, Christmas week, Thanksgiving week and spring break off.
ReplyDelete^^^ they don’t get 3 months off in the summer, if they’re lucky they get 5 weeks
ReplyDeleteThe ten and eleven hour days they put in during the school year more than make up for the time off they get
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteDemocrat greedy teachers union slobs work 24/7!
24 hours a week -- 7 months a year.
All teachers are Democrats?
ReplyDeleteWow, who knew?
^^^^ Butthurt little Basement Trolls don't work at all, unless you consider whining to be a career!
ReplyDeleteNeither do you, you fucking bum.
ReplyDeleteConservatives love Tony because he doesn't work, lives in his mother's basement & claims to be Mexican.
ReplyDeleteNobody has a more bullshit job than the money changers on Wall Street. Politicians on K Street come in second.
ReplyDelete"Consulting" is the biggest bullshit job. Look at DC, and state capitols, full of them, an entire "consulting class" exists, doing nothing but giving opinions, pushing opinions, pushing back on opinions, etc... mainstream media is a close second in b.s. job category.
ReplyDelete^^Yeah, do something meaningful with your life, become an athlete.
ReplyDeleteA consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you what time it is...
ReplyDelete^^^^ that’s funny right there!
ReplyDeleteTeachers' history:
ReplyDeleteFrom K thru 12- Thirteen years looking at model
Teaching degree- Four years of college
Total of 17 years observing and studying educators.
Applying for, and obtaining a teaching position
Happy. Telling friends and family "Got the job!!"
One year later- "I'm not paid enough, even though my pay is not dependent upon merit or performance."
Conclusion: One, if not the only, job where one can observe and even intern for that many years before entering the (?) profession, and still is too dumb to see the downside until hired, don't look to anyone for sympathy.
Fuck the teachers.
ReplyDelete@ 10:11, I am @9:52, and you nailed me! I AM a fucking bum! And Proud to be!
ReplyDeleteWorked 28 years at one career, retired, started up a business, built it up for eleven years, sold it to my top three employees, retired again, spent four years working as a volunteer Counselor for Vets.
Started a second Company, built it up over eight years and retired a third time.
In my mid-seventies, so the fucking part isn't what it once was, but I'm getting good at the Bum part - kind of boring though, thinking about starting another business.
AND YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS ARE?
Don’t forget, you shit yourself everyday too! All that success you say you have and you spend your retirement here in this town, on this shitty blog. You failed!
Delete^^Liar
ReplyDeleteYou're a "Liar" hunh?
ReplyDeleteI guess you can make your living that way, plenty of GOP Congressmen have.
@ 12:31 Give it up Dude,
ReplyDeleteYou just got your ass handed to you - twice!
NO, I didn't because its just anonymous words on a blog, not a fight.
ReplyDeleteHe's a liar.
12:28: Your career(s) sound interesting--especially the four years working as a volunteer counselor for vets. I'd be curious to know what your other careers and start-ups were.
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking! I suck a lot of cockinthe men’s room of the bus station. I sold that one to my wife. I also lie a lot on random blogs because I’m a lonely old pants-shitter!
DeleteYou can't fact check anonymous comments.
ReplyDeleteAccounting and auditing for 28 years, then started an accounting systems software development service.
ReplyDeleteCounseled vets, primarily Vietnam, on both employment advancement through educational opportunities and in small business startups.
Started my own custom leatherwork on-line sales business, a hobby that grew up, wound up spending too much time managing it and not enough making stuff, again let my first hire buy me out.
Still work leather as a money-making hobby, including some piecework for my former company, but I'm too busy living to spent too much time at it to call it a career.
Still waiting for the other guys list of accomplishments.
^^^You sound like a really, really, boring dude. Don’t forget your cocksucking business, you’re still doing that on the side.
DeleteYour career sounds similar to mine, but would you say the 28 years in accounting and auditing might not have had some bullshit aspects? I don't say that to offend as I had a 30-plus career in a field that had many bullshit aspects. In fact most of it was bullshit, and had it not been for government regulations, would not have been necessary at all. I used that career to save and invest and became financially independent. I then did some volunteer work, but, as you probably found, sometimes the actual volunteer work is great, but volunteer organizations sometimes have several layers of people in paid bullshit jobs that make even volunteer jobs hassles.
ReplyDeleteAh, and poopy pants finally makes his appearance at 2:06. Don't you have some diapers to pick up, corporophilia boy?
ReplyDelete2:11 (#1): You bet! But you can't afford me, and I don't make trailer calls.
ReplyDeletewhat about the protestant work ethic?
ReplyDeleteGood question. What about it?
ReplyDeleteBoiling this academics argument down to essentials the only job that is not bs is a farmer.
ReplyDeleteActually @ 2:09, I dropped out of volunteer work because I got tired of hearing "Vietnam Veterans" complain about how they couldn't hold a job / quit drinking / stay off drugs because of the Vietnam War experience, when they had spent their entire two-year hitch at Fort Riley.
ReplyDeleteAs far as bullshit, what's your point? There was a lot of bullshit involved in the casual labor jobs I had working my way through college, too.
And as far as government regulations, we've seen what the sacred GOP Deregulation" brought us under Reagan, first a six-year long raid on the savings of this country's elderly through the Savings and Loan Crisis, then the worse economic downturn in our history!
Thank God that damned Socialist FDR had put some sort of safety net in place!
Of course, running the printing presses at the Mint 25 hours a day to flood the economy with fiat cash and hide the fact that there was a recession didn't help things either.
Guess we're about to see if yet another round of tax cutting and deregulation will have any effect other than the short term bump before a crash that it did under Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II, aren't we? Well maybe doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result will work this time, finally! Yeah, MAYBE!
We don't have any choice in the matter, I'm lucky enough to be able to live comfortably, but not rich enough to afford any representation in Government.
Womp womp
ReplyDelete"As far as bullshit, what's your point? There was a lot of bullshit involved in the casual labor jobs I had working my way through college, too."
ReplyDeleteThe point of the book and the post is bullshit jobs. 'Nuff said?
I don't disagree with you on the sacred GOP deregulation, but some regulations (and those who interpret the regulations) lead to massive bullshit. One example--I worked on a fixed price contract on which the (government) customer placed requirements that we report as if the contract were cost reimbursable, which added layers of bullshit and cost taxpayers a great deal of ludicrously wasted money.
I now have to return to my regularly scheduled life. I hope you have a good one.
12:28 - With all of your accomplishments and multiple retirements, we all know you are bullshit! If all you said was true, this would be the last blog you would ever waste your time posting on - but yet here you are! Fuck off poser!!
ReplyDelete^^+1
ReplyDeleteGood one.
ReplyDelete