This article is wrong. I'd go even as far as say he is a failure as an anthropology professor. The answer is as simple as this - competition.
Survival is not enough for living organisms - they must also reproduce. Every organism tries to maximize it's own rate reproduction and minimize others. Any other behavior will drive it to extinction.
To talk in human terms, those who control technology and machines that could provide 15 h work week, have no interest in doing so. It's the opposite. They don't need others neither to survive, nor to breed. You need them. You must prove them that you are worthy of him giving money to you.
Besides, the bigger the population, the bigger the competition. It is seen very clearly in big cities like New York. There's even saying "If you can make it in NY, you can make it anywhere", because the competition makes it harder and harder as the human count increases.
So in your estimation, 'bullshit jobs' exist because the majority of people need to battle it out amongst each other in order to be rewarded by the elite controllers of 'technology and machines'?
I think you have unwittingly restated the author's thesis.
This article is wrong. I'd go even as far as say he is a failure as an anthropology professor. The answer is as simple as this - competition.
Survival is not enough for living organisms - they must also reproduce. Every organism tries to maximize it's own rate reproduction and minimize others. Any other behavior will drive it to extinction.
To talk in human terms, those who control technology and machines that could provide 15 h work week, have no interest in doing so. It's the opposite. They don't need others neither to survive, nor to breed. You need them. You must prove them that you are worthy of him giving money to you.
Besides, the bigger the population, the bigger the competition. It is seen very clearly in big cities like New York. There's even saying "If you can make it in NY, you can make it anywhere", because the competition makes it harder and harder as the human count increases.