I recently stumbled across an old Tyler Cowen post at Marginal Revolution — on “zero marginal product workers” — which perfectly illustrates the circularity of marginal productivity analysis, and how it hides power relations behind a facade of neutral economic laws. As Cowen initially states the argument, we have had a recovery in output, but…

In my previous essay Bullshit Jobs and the End of Work (As We Know It) I discussed the economic phenomenon that David Graeber coined as “bullshit jobs,” how the (transitionary) solution he suggested was to establish a universal basic income (UBI) and embrace automation leading to the end of work as we know it, and how this mirrors the…

Artigo original: Bullshit Jobs and the End of Work (As We Know It), de Logan Marie Glitterbomb. Traduzido para o Português por Gabriel Serpa. Pouco mais de cem anos desde que anarquistas, socialistas, comunistas, libertários e sindicalistas radicais venceram a longa, árdua e sangrenta batalha pela jornada de trabalho de oito horas, nos Estados Unidos,…

A little over 100 years since anarchists, socialists, communists, libertarians, and radical unionists in the so-called united states successfully won the long, difficult, and bloody battle for the eight hour workday, we are still overworked and underpaid despite technological advancements necessitating less and less labor to maintain the same quality of life. To quote Bertrand…

Di Rai Ling. Originale pubblicato il 23 settembre 2019 con il titolo Postmodern Discourse in the Corporate Boardroom. Traduzione di Enrico Sanna. Ad un recente incontro d’affari ho capito come le gerarchie aziendali portino spesso a distorsioni della realtà e ad una concorrenza a somma negativa. Come analista, elaboro “quadri operativi” che forniscano istruzioni attendibili…

During a recent business meeting, I noticed some ways in which corporate hierarchy leads to negative sum competition and distortions of reality. At my current job in data analytics, I build live business “dashboards” to provide actionable insights to upper management; this includes working with different departments to create new data pipelines and ensure the…

This is not a review of Bullshit Jobs. My verdict on the book is simple: it is good, and you should read it. You should, actually, probably read it before you read this. I’ll be re-explaining some of the concepts in it, but I will not cover them in the same depth as the book…

This month, C4SS Senior Fellow Roderick Long was featured in Reason magazine with a review of David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs: A Theory. “Bullshit jobs” are defined by Graeber as “so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify [their] existence.” The book discusses the rise of such jobs in the modern economy, pointing fingers squarely…

Abolish Work: A Lazy Exposition of Philosophical Ergophobia (LBC Books 2016), by Nick Ford It’s “no class but the leisure class” in Nick Ford’s new book: Abolish Work: A Lazy Exposition of Philosophical Ergophobia. Before continuing, I must acknowledge that this book includes two essays written by yours truly, which are credited to “Mr. Wilson”. Both…