Bullshit Jobs: A Theory
I was doing a little browsing and saw David Graeber has a new book, Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, coming out in a few days (you see that @vanholio?). If you haven't read Graeber's essay, On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs: A Work Rant, I highly recommend it. I assume the book will expand the thesis with more evidence and examples. The main takeaway for me from his essay was the following:
"If 1% of the population controls most of the disposable wealth, what we call ‘the market’ reflects what they think is useful or important, not anybody else."
You can see the same problems exist in the STEEM economy as the traditional economy. Why do I get orders of magnitude higher rewards from utopian submissions than any of my other posts? I'm not getting more votes, it's not inherently more valuable to people. It's because the utopian account controls a much larger fraction of the STEEM economy. In this case it aligns with my interests, but all too often that is not the case, and we thus get bullshit jobs.
As soon as it hits Amazon, I'm there!
Thanks for pointing out this book to me. Definitely adding it to my to-read list. I actually just read his original article today and loved it a lot.
No problem, glad you enjoyed the article. How's your writing going? Are you working on a book?
Totally gotta get this book!
RE: that quote by Graeber: It's not just the marketplace, as we think of it, but the political marketplace as well. Check this out, in case you missed it way back: https://www.vox.com/2014/4/18/5624310/martin-gilens-testing-theories-of-american-politics-explained
I recall seeing that study a while back. Indeed, it's the collusion between government and the wealthy / corporations driving this.