It’s been a long time since I read the original “Bullshit Jobs” essay or the book it was extended into; I’m tempted to go back with this critique in mind and see what I think.
[Graeber] presents an economic theory for how this happens, connecting it to the medieval practice of creating face-saving make-work jobs for talentless aristocrats, like a master of the horse or a lady of the bedchamber. In Graeber’s telling, a monarch who mostly gets paid taxes in kind has a calorie surplus, and needs to spend it by feeding assorted lackeys and hangers-on. And the modern rich are much richer than medieval rulers, while human vanity is a constant. So of course they hire a lot more such lackeys, right?
No! Of course not, because economic growth makes stuff cheap and time precious. And unstable political institutions also make safety precious. If there’s a cheap way to keep lots of allies handy, in case they’re necessary, and to keep enemies close, in case they want to try something, why not? That doesn’t apply today; Shantanu Narayen doesn’t have to worry that the illegitimate son of an Adobe cofounder is going to sail to San Jose, mercenaries in tow, and depose him.