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Review of Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber

5/28/2024

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​Thought-provoking and, at times, hilarious. I’ve had bullshit jobs before, so I recognize the phenomenon. To summarize, people get paid because someone willing to pay prefers not to do the thing being paid for. Things worth doing are typically poorly paid or unpaid. Very few jobs are both interesting and highly paid. A substantial percentage of jobs are bullshit. What an interesting state of affairs!
Engagement with economic terms like transaction costs, collective action problems, supply and demand, and principal-agent games would enrich the analysis. Competition is a facet of the economy that I think plays a vital role in the occurrence of bullshit jobs. Why don’t people use their jobs as platforms of development and self-advancement? Can a bullshit job be transformed into a non-bullshit job? Is a job bullshit for one person but not for another? 

I was intrigued by his description of the cycles of life he noted. In the Middle Ages, European young people moved to the house of another to learn the manners appropriate for an individual of their station. Adulthood started after. Manners, being a way of life, emphasize how integrated work habits, social rank, and citizenship are. Norms are so important in life.

Finally, he concluded by parsing a power-domination distinction. Power permits freedom, but domination doesn’t. Bdsm safe words, or informal contracts, provide an example of power without domination. But isn’t this just the rule of law and property rights!? Social contract theory?
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  • About Me
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