Bullshit Jobs: A Theory

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

David Graeber begins Bullshit Jobs by noting that everyone is familiar with jobs that don't seem to do much of anything like human resources, communications, people who discuss unnecessary committees, and so forth. In 1930, economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that by the end of the century, technology would be sufficient to the point where the average work week would be fifteen hours, which of course hasn't been the case today. The ruling class figured out that happy and productive populations with plenty free time would be a mortal danger, with Graeber mentioning that neoliberal ideology was the opposite of what it claimed, a political project dressed up as an economic one.

The first chapter attempts to define what a bullshit job is, mentioning military contractors and subcontractors and stories such as postal carriers who decide that rather than delivering mail, they dump it into various locations, letting it go undiscovered for years. Graeber further defines bullshit jobs as forms of employment so pointless that even the employee can't justify its existence even though they feel obliged to pretend otherwise. He mentions specific forms including telemarketing, market research, consulting, that allegedly produce little positive social value. Jeffrey Sachs, the Columbia University professor that designed "shock therapy" reforms for the former Soviet Union, mentions that America's duopolizing political parties are beyond corrupt, still the case today.

The second chapter asks what kind of bullshit jobs exist, obtaining testimony from across the world. Graber indicates five varieties: what flunkies do, with examples such as managers playing Pokémon all day rather than doing meaningful things; what goons do, including soldiers that don't fight wars; what duct tapers do, like coders patching defective computer programs; what box tickers do, such as checking stuff off on checklists and bureaucrats; and what taskmasters do, including allocating tasks to others. The author makes an analogy about imaginary friends, mentioning fake advertising and compliance firms, concluding by mentioning that you can have a bullshit job without realizing it.

The third chapter explores some of the moral and psychological effects of being trapped inside a bullshit job. Graeber mentions a Brish man who worked as an Interface Administrator for a content management system, being a combination of a duct-taper and a box checker, a not-so-dream dream job. He notes that students learn five main things: how to operate under others' direct supervision, how to pretend to work even when nothing needs to be done, that one is not paid money to do things, however useful or important, that one actually enjoys, that one is paid money to do things that are in no way useful and one does not enjoy, and that at least in jobs requiring interaction with the public, even when carrying out tasks one doesn't enjoy, one has to pretend to be enjoying it.

The fourth chapter asks what it's like to have a bullshit job, Graeber saying that if being forced to pretend working is infuriating to the point where you're under another's power, then bullshit jobs are entire jobs organized on that same principle. He notes that holders of bullshit jobs aren't always miserable, but such jobs are uncommon nowadays. Graeber cites several examples, including one of Charles, who worked in Sega in "localization" but did barely any work, and Greg, who spent two years designing "annoying banner ads," among others. He concludes the chapter by stating that it's possible to find purpose and meaning even in the worst bullshit jobs.

The fifth chapter asks why bullshit jobs are proliferating, mentioning the rise of the service economy, with the simultaneous decline in industry and agriculture due to relocation to other countries, not to mention the rise of information-oriented jobs since the 1990s. One could argue that the whole financial sector is a scam of sorts, since it represents itself as largely about directing investments towards profitable opportunities in commerce and industry despite actually doing little of that. Graeber touches upon the concept of development hell in the entertainment industry, where certain media goes unproduced for years, even decades, which appealed to me as I am familiar with that term.

Chapter Six asks why society doesn't object to the growth of pointless employment, mentioning that opinion writers are modern moralists, secular equivalents of preachers, and when they write about work, their arguments reflect long theological traditions of valorizing work as sacred duties, both curses and blessings, seeing humans as lazy and inherently sinful, and such. Graeber touches upon the Puritan Gospel of Work, where those who work are happy, and mentions the rise of the Gospel of Wealth that arose in the decades following the American Civil War. He mentions the American stereotypes of laziness being affiliated with racism towards the end.

The seventh chapter inquires as to the political effects of bullshit jobs and if anything can be done about them. Graeber mentions that critics claim we aren't working fifteen-hour work weeks because we have consumerism over leisure, which isn't too off the mark, but we are working harder because we feel pain the workplace as a justification for our furtive consumer pleasures as they take up more of our working existences, a form of sadism. He calls out the Left for trying to collapse the gulf between self-interest and high-minded principles despite its main messengers being Hollywood elites, while the Right is about preserving wealth that conflicts with moral traditions like religion.

The author concludes by mentioning universal basic income as a solution to the problem of proliferating bullshit jobs, and I found that automation through AI could help ease along that process, which prominent American elites like Elon Musk support, serving as President Donald Trump's "first buddy," and as a fellow autistic to Elon, that really appeals to me. The book is really good and makes some great points that could easily apply today, although the author does get some of his facts wrong like mentioning school administrators are part of teachers' unions, and some of the references to media like Douglas Adams' books will fly over many readers' heads. Regardless, this was an illuminating read that I would highly recommend.

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