One interesting wrinkle to this is status comes before employment. Which is to say, in society today, if you’re of a powerful class, you are granted employment (of a certain kind) by virtue of that class. Nepotism/Networking/“It’s all who you know,” etc.
Those jobs might be bullshit jobs, but their purpose isn’t economic - it’s not to produce value for an economy. It’s cultural - it’s to demonstrate personal value. Careers and jobs serve to reinforce the ruling ideology - “I deserve my money because I work for it.”
So these jobs - even if they are of questionable value, and even if they could be automated away - I think will continue. I imagine many of these jobs would be construed as jobs for the “smarter” or “more creative” or “more talented” among us (“Oh, he’s an Investor, he must be very smart!”). That it is some virtue of the powerful that allows them to find work (and thus moral superiority) where few can.
There’s a cruel nightmare down in there, suggesting that those who can’t find jobs just aren’t among the smart, creative, or talented. That they’re just “leeching off” of those who are, Galt-like, pursuing their virtuous self-interest as superior individuals in a world of people trying to hold them back.
I may be cynical, but I predict things get worse before they get better. Our culture isn’t at a place where it can accept the idea that you can be virtuous without work, that you can be creative and talented and smart and not be paid for that. It might be getting there, among the educated and the compassionate, but men like Trump make the rules these days, and in that world, there is no room for acknowledging the humanity of someone who doesn’t have a job.
