• Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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    7 hours ago

    Office jobs are still jobs. If a business genuinely was wasting vast amounts of money on fake work, then these jobs would be eliminated already. They are gradually being automated away, same as physical labor, but they still exist because they are still important for production.

    The target of your ire should not be this or that subsection of the working class, but instead the capitalist class.

    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      A lot of jobs are pure bullshit jobs that only exist because the corporation needed to hire inorder to appear growing. They then do mass firings to appear like they’re cutting costs. It’s all smoke and mirrors for the shareholders.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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        6 hours ago

        That doesn’t make the people filling those roles not working class, in fact it highlights how disposable the working class is to the capitalist class, and further reinforces my point: capitalists are the enemy.

        • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs

          anthropologist David Graeber that postulates the existence of meaningless jobs which cause psychological harm. He contends that over half of societal work is pointless and becomes psychologically destructive (when paired with a work ethic that associates work with self-worth) because workers are required to pretend their role is not as pointless or harmful as they know it to be.

          • ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works
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            2 hours ago

            when paired with a work ethic that associates work with self-worth

            This was an important part that shouldn’t be discounted since it was still at the core of the argument.

          • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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            5 hours ago

            I’m aware of Graeber’s work. I don’t really agree with much of his conclusions or analysis, as he is an anarchist and I’m a Marxist-Leninist, but we would agree that much of office work is indeed socially unproductive, if we were to pivot to a socialist economy. That being said, we exist in capitalism, and thus office workers are working class, regardless of how necessary the work they do is beyond helping generate profit.

      • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        I doubt that. You could do the same thing with fake job postings if you really wanted, and it’s cheaper.

        But let’s say you’re right. Those people would still be given lots of work and be busy, because if they were allowed to be not busy everyone else would see and not want to work.