{"id":20346,"date":"2018-09-19T19:41:49","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T19:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=20346"},"modified":"2018-09-19T19:42:41","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T19:42:41","slug":"how-is-it-that-a-growing-number-of-people-think-their-job-is-useless-by-rutgar-bregman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=20346","title":{"rendered":"Why a Growing Number of People Think Their Job is Useless. by Rutgar Bregman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Sheriff-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-19311\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Sheriff-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1080\" height=\"308\" srcset=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Sheriff-1.jpg 1080w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Sheriff-1-300x86.jpg 300w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Sheriff-1-768x219.jpg 768w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Sheriff-1-1024x292.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.newsroom247.com.ng --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.65rem; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.125rem; margin-top: 0px;\">A great deal has been written in recent years about the perils of automation. With predicted mass unemployment, declining wages, and increasing inequality, clearly we should all be afraid.<\/p>\n<div class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box; color: #141414; font-family: 'Neue Helvetica W01', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\">\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.65rem; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.125rem;\">By now it\u2019s no longer just the Silicon Valley trend watchers and technoprophets who are apprehensive. In a study that has already racked up several hundred citations, scholars at Oxford University<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>have estimated<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>that no less than 47% of all American jobs and<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>54%<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>of those in Europe are at a high risk of being usurped by machines. And not in a hundred years or so, but in the next 20. \u201cThe only real difference between enthusiasts and skeptics is a time frame,\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>notes<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>a New York University professor. \u201cBut a century from now, nobody will much care about how long it took, only what happened next.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box; color: #141414; font-family: 'Neue Helvetica W01', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\">\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.65rem; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.125rem;\">I admit, we\u2019ve heard it all before. Employees have been worrying about the rising tide of automation for 200 years now, and for 200 years employers have been assuring them that new jobs will naturally materialize to take their place. After all, if you look at the year 1800, some 74% of all Americans were farmers, whereas by 1900 this figure was down to 31%, and by 2000 to a mere 3%. Yet this hasn\u2019t led to mass unemployment. In 1930, the famous economist John Maynard Keynes was predicting that we\u2019d all be working just 15-hour weeks by the year 2030. Yet, since the 1980s, work has only been taking up more of our time, bringing waves of burnouts and stress in its wake.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box; color: #141414; font-family: 'Neue Helvetica W01', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\">\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.65rem; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.125rem;\">Meanwhile, the crux of the issue isn\u2019t even being discussed. The real question we should be asking ourselves is: what actually constitutes \u201cwork\u201d in this day and age?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--heading\" style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box; color: #141414; font-family: 'Neue Helvetica W01', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\"><b style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;\">What is<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u201cwork\u201d anyway?<\/h2>\n<div class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box; color: #141414; font-family: 'Neue Helvetica W01', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\">\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.65rem; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.125rem;\"><strong>In a 2013 survey of 12,000 professionals by the Harvard Business Review, half said they felt their job had no \u201cmeaning and significance,\u201d and an equal number were unable to relate to their company\u2019s mission, while another poll among 230,000 employees in 142 countries showed that only 13% of workers actually like their job. A<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>recent poll<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>among Brits revealed that as many as 37% think they have a job that is utterly useless.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box; color: #141414; font-family: 'Neue Helvetica W01', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\">\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.65rem; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.125rem;\">They have, what anthropologist David Graeber refers to as,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>\u201cbullshit jobs\u201d.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>On paper, these jobs sound fantastic. And yet there are scores of successful professionals with imposing LinkedIn profiles and impressive salaries who nevertheless go home every evening grumbling that their work serves no purpose.<\/p>\n<div class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\">\n<p>Let\u2019s get one thing clear though: I\u2019m not talking about the sanitation workers, the teachers, and the nurses of the world. If these people were to go on strike, we&#8217;d have an instant state of emergency on our hands. No, I\u2019m talking about the growing armies of consultants, bankers, tax advisors, managers, and others who earn their money in strategic trans-sector peer-to-peer meetings to brainstorm the value-add on co-creation in the network society. Or something to that effect.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\">\n<p>So, will there still be enough jobs for everyone a few decades from now? Anybody who fears mass unemployment underestimates capitalism\u2019s extraordinary ability to generate new bullshit jobs. If we want to really reap the rewards of the huge technological advances made in recent decades (and of the advancing robots), then we need to radically rethink our definition of \u201cwork.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=16976&amp;ad_type=62&amp;rl=180\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box; color: #141414; font-family: 'Neue Helvetica W01', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box; color: #141414; font-family: 'Neue Helvetica W01', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\">\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.65rem; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.125rem;\">\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--heading\" style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box; color: #141414; font-family: 'Neue Helvetica W01', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\">The paradox of progress<\/h2>\n<div class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box; color: #141414; font-family: 'Neue Helvetica W01', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\">\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.65rem; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.125rem;\">It starts with an age-old question: what is the meaning of life? Most people would say the meaning of life is to make the world a little more beautiful, or nicer, or more interesting. But how? These days, our main answer to that is: through work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box; color: #141414; font-family: 'Neue Helvetica W01', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\">\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.65rem; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.125rem;\">Our definition of work, however, is incredibly narrow. Only the work that generates money is allowed to count toward GDP. Little wonder, then, that we have organized education around feeding as many people as possible in bite-size flexible parcels into the employment establishment. Yet what happens when a growing proportion of people deemed successful by the measure of our knowledge economy say their work is pointless?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box; color: #141414; font-family: 'Neue Helvetica W01', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\">\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.65rem; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.125rem;\">That\u2019s one of the biggest taboos of our times. Our whole system of finding meaning could dissolve like a puff of smoke.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box; color: #141414; font-family: 'Neue Helvetica W01', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\">\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.65rem; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.125rem;\">The irony is that technological progress is only exacerbating this crisis. Historically, society has been able to afford more bullshit jobs precisely because our robots kept getting better. As our farms and factories grew more efficient, they accounted for a shrinking share of our economy. And the more productive agriculture and manufacturing became, the fewer people they employed. Call it the paradox of progress: the richer we become, the more room we have to waste our time. It\u2019s like Brad Pitt says in<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><i style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box;\">Fight Club<\/i>: too often, we\u2019re \u201cworking jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don\u2019t need.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box; color: #141414; font-family: 'Neue Helvetica W01', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\">\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.65rem; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.125rem;\">The time has come to stop sidestepping the debate and home in on the real issue: what would our economy look like if we were to radically redefine the meaning of \u201cwork\u201d? I firmly believe that a<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>universal basic income<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>is the most effective answer to the dilemma of advancing robotization. Not because robots will take over all the purposeful jobs, but because a basic income would give everybody the chance to do work that is meaningful.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--image\" style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 1em 0px 2em; overflow: auto; color: #141414; font-family: 'Neue Helvetica W01', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\">\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.65rem; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.125rem;\"><strong>I believe in a future where the value of your work is not determined by the size of your paycheck, but by the amount of happiness you spread and the amount of meaning you give. I believe in a future where the point of education is not to prepare you for another useless job, but for a life well lived. I believe in a future where<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>\u201cjobs are for robots and life is for people.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<div class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box; color: #141414; font-family: 'Neue Helvetica W01', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\">\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.65rem; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.125rem;\">And if basic income sounds Utopian to you, then I\u2019d like to remind you that every milestone of civilization \u2013 from the end of slavery to democracy to equal rights for men and women \u2013 was once a Utopian fantasy too. Or, as Oscar Wilde wrote long ago: \u201cProgress is the realization of Utopias.\u201d(www.weforum.org)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box; color: #141414; font-family: 'Neue Helvetica W01', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\">\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.65rem; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.125rem;\"><i style=\"line-height: 1.125; box-sizing: border-box;\">This article has been translated from Dutch by Elizabeth Manton.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><code><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.newsroom247.com.ng --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<p><code><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=16965&amp;ad_type=64&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/code><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; A great deal has been written in recent years about the perils of automation. With predicted mass unemployment, declining wages, and increasing inequality, clearly we should all be afraid. By now it\u2019s no longer just the Silicon Valley trend watchers and technoprophets who are apprehensive. In a study that has already racked up several [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[23,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news","category-society"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/11230103_918125678234358_7033647526946790436_n.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-5ia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20346"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20349,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20346\/revisions\/20349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}