Modern capitalism and the rise of the bullshit* job

Modern capitalism was supposed to deliver productivity gains, efficiency and unimagined wealth for all. So why are so many of us labouring away at pointless work?

Modern capitalism was supposed to deliver productivity gains, efficiency and unimagined wealth for all. Why then are so many of us labouring away at pointless work? Stuart Watkins reports.

In the former Soviet Union, employment was considered to be both a right and a sacred duty. As the economy was supposed to be planned from above to meet people's needs, and as those needs included their need to work, the system made up as many jobs as it had to. As anthropologist David Graeber points out in his book, Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, that had predictable consequences. In the USSR, it took three clerks to sell a piece of meat.

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Stuart Watkins
Comment editor, MoneyWeek

Stuart graduated from the University of Leeds with an honours degree in biochemistry and molecular biology, and from Bath Spa University College with a postgraduate diploma in creative writing. 

He started his career in journalism working on newspapers and magazines for the medical profession before joining MoneyWeek shortly after its first issue appeared in November 2000. He has worked for the magazine ever since, and is now the comment editor. 

He has long had an interest in political economy and philosophy and writes occasional think pieces on this theme for the magazine, as well as a weekly round up of the best blogs in finance. 

His work has appeared in The Lancet and The Idler and in numerous other small-press and online publications.