Graeber specifically answers the question, “Is a job bullshit if the person doing it doesn’t thing it’s bullshit?” His answer is, “No, it’s not bullshit then.”
Bullshit jobs are jobs where everyone including the person who does the job agrees that it’s bullshit.
In my suburb? All of them. ALL of them.
This morning, the street sweepers went over the neighborhood TWICE! Why? Because these are the same employees that refuse to plow snow in the winter, and since we didn’t have jack for snow this winter, they get to drive around sweeping streets that don’t need it so they can get paid. After a snow, they just drive the snowplow trucks all through the streets at a high rate of speed with their plows up. Why do they even bother to drive around if they have the plows up? Because they have GPS in trucks that tattle if they don’t drive down each street. But it doesn’t report whether they actually plow the snow.
Perhaps, but he undercuts this with the number of times he provides explicit lists of “bullshit jobs”. Even if those are only the jobs that are presumptively bullshit, that’s still a value judgement on his part.
That is frustrating for sure, but employees performing their much needed duties poorly is completely different from bullshit jobs Graeber is describing. You clearly think their job is needed, but they are not doing it well. One could argue that whatever contractor that installed GPSs on all those trucks had a bullshit job - money was spent, but no actual difference was made by these devices.
The Imperium arguably has a solid contender for the “no, no, the cogs just don’t see the big picture” case.
The Adeptus Mechanicus is the only thing keeping humanity above the ‘banging rocks together, in space’ stage; but having no idea whatsoever why a particular litany of maintenance mollifies a machine spirit isn’t just accepted; it’s practically mandatory. (Effort to become a literal cog is also OK)
Oh, no - I don’t think they’re doing their job AT ALL! They can’t be fired for poor performance, and even when the school bus drivers complain that the streets aren’t being plowed, the city doesn’t do anything to punish them for non-performance. Their bosses don’t care because the entire city bureaucracy feels entitled to get paid for doing absolutely nothing.
Sorry to read that, RedFury.
Unfortunately you are FORCED to pay for that useless service with your property taxes. If you’re not happy about it and chose not to pay for dead weight, well then the local sheriff eventually comes along and evicts you and places your possessions on the curb. And don’t complain either because the next time you call for local government service the response time may not be so fast. Nice arrangement, huh?
Also, I’m not in favor of Corporate Welfare either. I’m guessing not many Boingers have received a substantial 10 or 20 year tax break when they moved into an apartment, condo, or home?
Even the Mechanicus is too stubborn to adopt new technology of it’s Xenos in origin despite no evidence that it “harms” the machine spirits in their form/function.
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