Bullshit jobs are central to how our economy works, and their history goes way back. Most "work projects," unless they are to build infrastructure, are bullshit jobs. I'm convinced that a significant proportion of the military activity in the world is one big exercise in very pompous and important-seeming bullshit jobs in the defense sector. Whole sectors of the economy are bullshit.
The more I see, especially since 2008, the more I think Keynes was really onto something re: monetary velocity. Our biggest problem is excessive pessimism and a zero-sum mentality, manifesting as various paradoxes of thrift. Without monumental efforts at hand-waving to keep the money flowing, our tendency is to deflate all the way back to the dark ages.
Bullshit jobs are a semi-conscious hack to keep this from happening-- to keep people "working" so they get paid so the money flows.
The other crazy hack around this problem is inflation, and fiat currency in general.
The Austrian types who preach how all this nonsense is a result of these things are precisely wrong. Don't blame the hack for the thing it's fixing.
If we can find a more permanent solution to the problems that we're hacking around, maybe we can dispense with the bullshit. Maybe that's a guaranteed minimum income.
The more I see, especially since 2008, the more I think Keynes was really onto something re: monetary velocity. Our biggest problem is excessive pessimism and a zero-sum mentality, manifesting as various paradoxes of thrift. Without monumental efforts at hand-waving to keep the money flowing, our tendency is to deflate all the way back to the dark ages.
Bullshit jobs are a semi-conscious hack to keep this from happening-- to keep people "working" so they get paid so the money flows.
The other crazy hack around this problem is inflation, and fiat currency in general.
The Austrian types who preach how all this nonsense is a result of these things are precisely wrong. Don't blame the hack for the thing it's fixing.
If we can find a more permanent solution to the problems that we're hacking around, maybe we can dispense with the bullshit. Maybe that's a guaranteed minimum income.