Enthusiastic Reader’s Reviews > Bullshit Jobs: A Theory > Status Update

Okay, he does touch on the problem with UBI in a rent-based economy in the notes.

All of the gratuitous sadism of workplace politics depends on one's inability to say "I quit" and feel no economic consequences. <--- the difference between my main job and my side gigs.

Talking a LOT about UBI but no mention of rent control.

(interview) "monetizing those activities often decreases the qualitative value of the care, especially if it's done, as it is usually, as a list of specific tasks with set time limits." <--- LIKE THE EFFECT GRADES HAVE ON STUDENT MOTIVATION.

(in an interview) "everyone is a carer in one form or another. If you're not looking after someone else then at the very least you're looking after yourself, and this takes time and energy the system is less and less willing to afford people."

studies... demonstrate that any system of means testing, no matter how it's framed, will necessarily mean at least 20% of those who legitimately qualify for benefits give up and don't apply. That's almost certainly more than the number of "cheats" who might be detected by the rules—in fact, even counting those who are honestly mistaken the number still only comes to 1.6 percent.

Oo, he flat-out says he's an anarchist. Nifty!

This is not a book about a particular solution. It's a book about a problem—one that most people don't even acknowledge exists.

(continued) This is the kind of question that concerned Aristotle, Confucius, and Ibn Khaldun, and in the final analysis it's still the only really important one.

As Karl Mars once pointed out: prior to the industrial revolution, it never seems to have occurred to anyone to write a book asking what conditions would create the most overall wealth. Many, however, wrote books about what conditions would create the best people—that is, how should society be best arranged to produce the sort of human beings one would like to have around. (continued)