I have been reading a book by David Graeber on the problem of b.s. jobs, and I the way that the author seemed most interested in defining what about them that was so soul-destroying, and also how many types of them there were.  What interested me the most, though, was their existence and the reasons for it.  What is the rationale for there being so many jobs that require a high degree of education (for credentialing purposes) that nonetheless serve no useful purpose beyond what is politically useful for those who are in charge or are in high positions within institutions?  As someone who finds questions of legitimacy and politics deeply interesting, I find it quite striking that this would be such an often ignored question.  It is easy for people to think that their own jobs are frustrating and often pointless and to be right about it, but the fact that such jobs exist for reasons suggest that they are, in at least some universe, rationale in nature and therefore are subject to some sort of analysis and may elicit some sort of justification.

I do not mean this merely in the small level of justification by which every manager or executive who fills out an obviously unnecessary job would be able to justify it on an individual basis, whatever the reality was, but rather the justification that exists on the larger level.  What social benefit does it have for people who have a high degree of education to be busy pretending to do something useful in the absence of anything useful to actually do?  It is worthy to think of a thought experiment.  Under what circumstances is it useful for people who are well-educated and who might believe that they are entitled to have professions that reward them–and not only monetarily–to a level commensurate with their education and talents to be doing things that are useless when it comes to actual productivity?  It is useful for people to be doing nothing useful when the alternative is for them to be doing something that would be potentially harmful to the powers that be.  To the extent that such people could be co-opted into having an actual degree of sympathy for the status quo within society, it may even be beneficial for them to be somewhat cynical, but not too hostile, concerning the general uselessness of their lives.

Let us suppose that there was no bureaucratic makework within government or private enterprise.  Let us assume there were no useless boxes to be checked or forms to be filled out to do mundane and basic tasks.  Let us assume there were no reports that had to be made for the sake of making them, no efforts made to sell people things that they did not need, or anything of that nature.  Let us assume there were no people who had jobs simply as a way of making someone else feel important by having someone in charge of and that all tasks done were either necessary directly to a company’s bottom line by producing a good or delivering a service to an external customer or was a vital task of serving others within an organization that was given respect and viewed as worthwhile by everyone involved.  How many jobs would be removed from the current job pool?  Where would the money that is saved from all this overhead go?  Would it go towards blue collar or frontline employees who were doing the sort of work that everyone agrees is important for profitability but which is not often given respect?  That is doubtful, given contemporary societal trends.  Would the money go to dividends or stock options or income for executives?  Probably, but doing so might also have some political consequences.

By some estimates about half of workers in industrialized economies in the West have jobs that have no ostensible purpose to the people who are doing them.  What would these people be doing if there were not makework jobs for them to do that, if demoralizing, at least ensured a decent standard of living?  It is quite possible that there would be political consequences for a nation that could not find enough work for its intelligent and educated populations.  We know that around much of the world in less well-developed countries there are brain drains because educated people have a hard time finding good work, and thus find it impossible to buy homes and live on their own and start families–all the things that are complained about when it comes to contemporary Millennials in the United States and other Western countries–and such people think that by leaving their kerplunkistan home countries that they can find a better life abroad.  Unfortunately, all too many people find that the same situation exists all over the world.  There is a great deal of work that needs to be done–anyone who looks at our falling infrastructures can see that, but no one is wiling to pay anyone to do that kind of work.  What people are willing to pay for is the creation of cat memes as a way of making oneself look busy or the writing of TPS reports or the analysis of data or the efforts made at engaging in surveillance and control of others, work that does not build anything or create any good or service that is worth consuming for the ordinary person.  And people that could be manning the ramparts for social revolution are instead made to feel at least vaguely guilty for stealing time and resources in order to keep themselves sane.

Is there an alternative to any of this?  Is there a way for the creative potential of people to be unleashed in such a way that it provides a gain to a society rather than a potential threat to society and its institutions?  At least from my own personal experience, which is admittedly limited, people of high degrees of creativity and alienation are viewed with considerable alarm and are treated as threats of the highest order.  If you want to be viewed as a threat within a given society, then showing an interest in the seamier or more unpleasant aspects of that society along with an ability to write coherently and engage with other people in public through one’s blogging or social media efforts is a fast way to be noticed no matter how obscure one may consider oneself.  It does not take a great deal of knowledge or power to be viewed as a threat.  Listening to someone tell a story and taking the time to write about flopsy mopsy cottontails that find themselves to be the unfortunate victim of efforts at mowing is sometimes enough for someone to be viewed as a great threat to the privacy of one’s coworkers.  Even having a college degree and struggling to find a place to use it can lead companies to demand college degrees for all kinds of makework jobs, even that of, say, reading and scoring the essays of high school students or engaging in data entry of mortgage loan applications, simply because one can require such things and because the desire for people to do something, anything, productive will mean that such jobs are done by someone.  Maybe even by someone like me.