We generally live in a society where many utterly useless jobs are massively overpaid, while other, truly important jobs sometimes pay only slightly more than the minimum wage.
Just think, for example, of ESG managers, analysts, insurance brokers, or other desk-bound bureaucrats in corporate headquarters. If you could easily cut their numbers in half, no one would even notice.
Try cutting the number of caregivers, tradespeople, emergency responders, or construction workers by 50% instead… you’d have chaos within a week.
Yet the former group earns, on average, significantly more.
This raises the legitimate question: how could such misallocations of resources have occurred?
Just think, for example, of ESG managers, analysts, insurance brokers, or other desk-bound bureaucrats in corporate headquarters. If you could easily cut their numbers in half, no one would even notice.
Try cutting the number of caregivers, tradespeople, emergency responders, or construction workers by 50% instead… you’d have chaos within a week.
Yet the former group earns, on average, significantly more.
This raises the legitimate question: how could such misallocations of resources have occurred?
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@FairValue I think it's simply because there's no direct economic benefit to be gained from it, and you can't achieve economies of scale either. But as you said, think about what would happen if there were a week-long strike?
Plus, there are negotiations with the health insurance companies—because money is just tight right now!
Plus, there are negotiations with the health insurance companies—because money is just tight right now!
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•@FairValue I come from middle management—and I don’t think much of middle management. People here will accuse me of badmouthing my own organization, but it’s precisely this level that’s often filled with people who create problems rather than solve them. In the end, when the economy slows down, cost-cutting starts at the lower levels first—even though they’re the ones who bring in the money and have the best ideas for cutting costs. It’s a tragedy, and it happens over and over again.
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@FairValue Yeah, well, I think a lot of those jobs will disappear soon anyway because AI will easily take them over.
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•@Aelthred I see it exactly the same way you do.
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•@ReneWu I compare middle management to the civil service—a self-perpetuating apparatus. Resourceful people will come up with plenty of reasons why their jobs can't be eliminated through streamlining—and if not, they'll run to the works council.
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