Do you agree with the theory that at least 50-60% of jobs nowadays are uneeded?

what book was it? i don't think it's as high as 50% but i agree that a lot of "white-collar" jobs only exist to shuffle money around between various corporations or from consumers to said corps. i have one of these jobs. i have often said that if i could get paid my same salary/benefits to dig ditches or harvest beets i would sign up in an instant. since we don't live in that world, i keep logging in to my silly email job and jiggling the mouse to stay green on microsoft teams in between bull$hit meetings. at least it leaves me plenty of energy for my hobby jogging.

jamin wrote:

Just finished reading a decent book on this subject.

Examples of useless jobs:

* HOA President

* Lawyer (only exists to counteract other lawyers, i.e. no net value for economy)

* Middle Management

LetsRun troll?

jk love you jamin

You are unneeded.

Jesus jamin you are one pathetic loser who adds zero to these boards. And probably anything else for that matter

* Software developers

* Real estate speculators / Apartment owners

* Investment talking heads

* Stock speculators

obviousnessrightness wrote:

You are unneeded.

See my prior post. His job is at the top of the useless list.

Add.

* LRC trolls (jamin)

* Dating websites

* Ukrainian women seeking American husbands

fake-ware wrote:

* Software developers

That one is tricky because software developers usually have 2 jobs:

(1) A day job for which they get paid but which might not produce anything because projects get canceled, delayed by process rituals, randomized work, etc.

(2) Their night job for which they don't get paid; build the core technology by their contributions to open-source projects

Lol

What i think is that probably half the stuff we have nowadays, in this country at least, we could do without, or do with a much more efficient or basic version. I think we are addicted to stuff, latch on to far to much of it, discard it much too early, and enjoy it far too little.

So, probably the labor it takes to channel all that unnecessary stuff could be considered arent really needed except that it is filling an unnecessary demand.

I think we could stand to be a lot more concerned about how we are impacting the planet, and perhaps gravitate to live more for experiences and involved with activities that promote health and activity and discovery (like running is a good example).

But we seem to be very far from anything approximating that.

jamin wrote:

Just finished reading a decent book on this subject.

Examples of useless jobs:

* HOA President

* Lawyer (only exists to counteract other lawyers, i.e. no net value for economy)

* Middle Management

Id categorize a bunch of corp jobs as slush. Prob 25-30% armchair estimate.

Source: mid mgmt publically listed bank

70% of academia

70% of the federal government

70% of the legal profession

90% of the entertainment industry

I agree that the women of the greater Puget Sound area find Jamin unnecessary and would not give him a “job” of any kind.

Your numbers are too low.

80% teachers and administrators

90% state and fed government

95% legal profession

97% Hollywood

TMADDDHASFNE wrote:

Your numbers are too low.

80% teachers and administrators

90% state and fed government

95% legal profession

97% Hollywood

Necessary jobs would include prostitutes and garbage men. Your numbers are way off. We need lawyers though. We need teachers.

jamin wrote:

Just finished reading a decent book on this subject.

Examples of useless jobs:

* HOA President

* Lawyer (only exists to counteract other lawyers, i.e. no net value for economy)

* Middle Management

1) Most HOA Presidents are paid nothing or very little. It's not a full time job.

2) Lawyers? Lawyers protect copyright infringement and help punish criminal behavior. Sorry, but they are necessary.

3) Middle Management? Well, that depends on the size of the company. I once worked for one of the largest companies in the world, and Middle Management was a necessity there. In smaller companies, there's a case to be made, but as a blanket statement, no.

fake-ware wrote:

* Software developers

* Real estate speculators / Apartment owners

* Investment talking heads

* Stock speculators

Software developers? What are you smoking? Everything from our cars to planes to...well, EVERYTHING runs on software.

Apartment owners? Where the hell are people supposed to live then?

Real estate agent

Financial advisor

Basically these jobs are hired by stupid or lazy people who don't want to do the work themselves. These positions take/steal the people's money, at least a cut of it. Pretty pathetic.

Right in about the fed. Remember all of the hysteria about the government shutdowns?

It just proves that most of the jobs were unneeded anyway.

san diego running nerd wrote:

Right in about the fed. Remember all of the hysteria about the government shutdowns?

It just proves that most of the jobs were unneeded anyway.

I read in this book that the country of Belgium had a government shutdown that lasted over 500 days and during that time it was like nothing happened, life went on without interruption

jamin wrote:

Do you agree with the theory that at least 50-60% of jobs nowadays are uneeded?

Could you give me an example of an eeded job?