Is a non-BS economy even possible?

What would the U.S. unemployment rate be if all useless or harmful jobs were eliminated?

It would probably be equivalent to the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Barack Obama, in an interview in 2006, stated the problem:

“I don’t think in ideological terms. I never have. … Everybody who supports single-payer healthcare says, ‘Look at all this money we would be saving from insurance and paperwork.’  That represents 1 million, 2 million, 3 million jobs of people who are working at Blue Cross Blue Shield or Kaiser or other places.  What are we doing with them?  Where are we employing them?”

Source: The Nation

David Graeber, in his new book, Bullshit Jobs: a Theory, quoted public opinion polls that found 37 percent of UK employees and 40 percent in the Netherlands thought their jobs made no meaningful contribution to the world.

Now maybe that is exaggerated.  Maybe some of them think they make a contribution, but that it’s not “meaningful.”

Offsetting this, the inherent bias of people is to think we are accomplishing more than other people think we do or the objective facts indicate.

For example, public relations, advertising, lobbying, consulting and even speculation on financial and commodities markets have their uses.  It is just that they play more of a role in the economy than they should.

I myself think the U.S. military and intelligence services are much greater than necessary to protect the homeland from attack.  Of course, if the mission is to make the United States the world’s only superpower, no number could be great enough.

The question is: What would happen if all these people were thrown on the job market, all at once?

It would be a catastrophe, unless there were some sort of basic income guarantee (which Graeber advocates) or basic job guarantee.

In the absence of income or job guarantees, or maybe even with them, useless and BS workers will be a powerful force in support of the status quo.

Employees who do necessary work have power.  When nurses or teachers go on strike, there is an impact.

Employees who do unnecessary or marginally necessary work have no power.  Nobody would notice if motivational speakers or diversity trainers went on strike.   The public would rejoice if telemarketers went on strike.

But unlike the unemployed, they do have something to lose.  The existence of their jobs depends on the good will of the wealthy and corporate job creators.

∞∞∞

In principle, it is possible for the United States to have a full-employment economy without make-work jobs.

Assume for the sake of argument that most manufacturing jobs are going to be eliminated by labor-saving machinery or by imports from foreign sweatshops.  It’s possible for the United States to have stronger manufacturing industries than we do, but it wouldn’t necessarily mean a lot more factory jobs.

There will be a great need for the caring occupations—people to look after children, the sick, the handicapped and the infirm elderly.  I read somewhere that Japanese companies are making robot companions for lonely elderly people.  Who on earth would prefer a robot companion to a human companion?

There will be a great need for the maintenance workers—janitors, cleaners, electric and telephone linemen, auto mechanics, carpenters, plumbers and the like, and also construction workers to repair and maintain our crumbling roads, bridges, electric power grids, water and sewerage systems, airports and seaports.

There will be a need for workers in health care, education and food service.  We might consider more subsidies for filmmakers, musicians and other artists and entertainers.

Looking at all these occupations, I notice that many (not all) are jobs historically held by women.  Many (not all) are jobs that don’t require increased consumption of fossil fuels.  None of them are jobs that can be transferred to foreign countries.  There may be an upper limit, or point of diminishing returns, for such work, but we are far from it.  So there are many good reasons for more caring and maintenance jobs.

So in principle there is an answer to Barack Obama’s question.  There is a better way to run an economy than the way we are doing.  But how do we get from our present economic and political system to the better way?

LINKS

Punching the Clock by David Graeber for Harper’s Magazine.

‘I had to guard an empty room’: the rise of the pointless job by David Graeber for The Guardian.

The Rise of Bullshit Jobs, an interview with David Graeber for Jacobin [Added 7/1/2018]

 

Tags: BS Jobs, Bullshit Jobs, David Graeber