Comment by MattGaiser
4 years ago
My problem with the bullshit jobs thesis is the "inherent value." There are plenty of jobs that have little societal value, but provide plenty of value to the person employing the person.
For example, plenty of jurisdictions give large tax breaks to farms, so it is reasonably common for developers holding land to turn their land into a "farm." One fellow I heard of put 6 cows on a plot of development land and paid someone to drop hay off for the cows as the land had next to no grass, as it was under development.
No real value is being generated from the cows. The output of 6 poorly fed and housed beef cows is well under the money paid to the cow carer and for the hay and for the damage caused by the cows to the neighbourhood when they escaped.
But the developer saved 80K a year in various property tax after all expenses were considered.
Yeah that's bullshit though - it's a warped incentive caused by social systems. In a healthy social system, these incentives to make money doing pointless bullshit should be minimised. David Graeber is an anarchist, and the whole bullshit jobs concept is a criticism of capitalism.