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How Much Work Is Compliance, Enforcement & Menial Servitude To The New Aristocracy?
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
It's difficult to estimate the quantity of our work devoted to data-shuffling compliance with and enforcement of perverse regulations and neofeudal menial-servitude to the top 10%.
A spate of recent articles have investigated the nature of today's jobs:
These articles implicitly raise a question: how much of our work is compliance with regulations, enforcement of those regulations and menial servitude to the New Aristocracy, i.e. the top 10% who have prospered as financiers and the technocrats who manage the central-state/vested-interests status quo?
While the technocrat class has been doing better than everyone else, even the top ranks of the work force are experiencing stagnant incomes: Even the Most Educated Workers Have Declining Wages (when adjusted for inflation).
One of the many drivers of this trend to lower-paying, menial-servitude types of work is deregulation, which perversely increases the need for more regulation and low-value paper-shuffling: David Graeber's Utopia of Rules: why deregulation is actually expanding bureaucracy
Graeber's new book is titled The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy.
Another reason is that most of the income gains of the past few decades have flowed to the very top of the income pyramid:
Since the top apex has sucked most of the financial oxygen out of the system, much of the system has adapted by serving the needs of those few who have benefited from financialization.
More education is not the answer--though assistant provosts to the adjunct deans currently skimming huge salaries are anxious to keep their share of the higher-education gravy train.
Despite the ceaseless propaganda about the value of college--translated into English, this means, "please keep borrowing $100,000 for a worthless degree so I can keep my $250,000 per year job as assistant provost to the adjunct dean of academic standards and political correctness in the Educrat Industry"--the reality is the wages of college grads are not keeping pace with the soaring cost of supporting all those assistant provosts to the adjunct deans and shiny new admin buildings on campuses.
Those on the bottom of the higher-education food chain aren't doing as well as the well-paid educrats; many of those who are actually doing the lowly, poorly paid work of teaching students qualify for social welfare programs:
Someone Calculated How Many Adjunct Professors Are on Public Assistance, and the Number Is Startling
The student debt-serfs who paid for all the shiny new buildings and fat admin salaries with future earnings aren't doing so well, either: "Staggering" Student Loan Defaults On Deck: 27% Of Students Are A Month Behind On Their Payment
Another factor is the rising dominance of industries that are mostly low-value paper-shuffling: healthcare (up to 50% of the costs in the U.S. system is estimated to be shuffling paper or fraud enabled by the blizzard of insurance claims), higher education, which is increasingly a factory for loans and high-overhead issuance of credits and credentials, and of course the debt industry itself: the financial sector and its various pools of predators and parasites.
This leads to a question that must be asked of every post-industrial economy burdened with a regulatory utopia mandated by the state/vested-interests neofeudal arrangement: are we really producing anything? Is the UK really producing anything?
Meanwhile, access to the technocrat class is narrowing. Credentials that were once a passport to a big-bucks secure job have lost their signaling power as the market for credentials is saturated: Burdened With Debt, Law School Graduates Struggle in Job Market.
It's difficult to estimate the quantity of our work devoted to data-shuffling compliance with and enforcement of perverse regulations and neofeudal menial-servitude to the top 10%, but shall we start with 40% and go from there?
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Old news. Aldous Huxley @ UC Berkley 1962. "And there seems to be a general movement in the general direction of this kind of ultimate revolution. This method of control by which people can be made to enjoy a state of affairs by any decent standard they ought not to enjoy." 6:35 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpwOmwysqJ8
you'd think there'd be good jobs eveywhere just in extending food, water, clothing and housing out into a world goring almost exponentially.
However the top .1% have made in their priority to control the process and the resources
Need moar government.
Years ago it was calculated that the cost of complying with the Federal income tax was equal to the entire work output of the state of Indiana. That's just the work involved, not paying for the tax.
Not surprising, considering cost of government day fell on July 6th last year.
Mankind was created as a slave race of the gods, the behavior is not suprising.
Why else might you think that so many people have just F’n QUIT ??
I had always thought I was in a productive field but this has dramatically changed. I don't think I do even 20 minutes of an hour in actual microbiology any more. Mostly filling out government paperwork and reporting, job competency evaluations, HR personel yearly requirements including doing modules for safety, ethics, diversity and work standards and instrumentation maintenance.
I guess I have an attitude problem. Whenever management presents a new compliance requirement, I just try and figure out a way to not do it skillfully without detection whereas everyone else try to diligently incorporate in into their day.
The requirements for government reporting is a staggering list now and noncompliance carries severe monetary penalties. I'm sure the average patient would be surprised there is no confidentiality when it comes to the government.
attitude problems + skillfull non-compliance !!!
oh, to be mister miffed ...
He does cock and eye and laugh a lot at me. Thank goodness it's outside of the bedroom.
Miffed;-)
you must have developed, in him, a clear understanding of certain boundaries ...
*anky
inside | outside
*= | *=
_____ | _______
h | cr
p |
sp |
* != sk
I took a page out of Grace Kelly's book when it came to having a great marriage. Regal, classy and gregarious, forever the lady presented to friends, family and the public, but behind that twinkle in my eye and pert smile, I am a high class whore in the bedroom.
Seems to have worked but, then again, men are easy to please. ;-)
Miffed;-)
Older news. Friedrich Hayek: The Road to Serfdom. 1944. Covers it all.
Society has mistakenly tried to ensure continuing prosperity by centralized planning, which inevitably leads to totalitarianism. "We have in effect undertaken to dispense with the forces which produced unforeseen results and to replace the impersonal and anonymous mechanism of the market by collective and ‘conscious’ direction of all social forces to deliberately chosen goals". Socialism, while presented as a means of assuring equality, does so through "restraint and servitude", while "democracy seeks equality in liberty." Planning, because coercive, is an inferior method of regulation, while the competition of a free market is superior "because it is the only method by which our activities can be adjusted to each other without coercive or arbitrary intervention of authority."
In short: Government is the problem, not the answer.
Since every large group of people I know of will automatically recognize that some form of governing authority is needed, I guess there is no solution.
There is a night and day difference between governments to enforce liberty (what our Constitution is about - although our Constitution has been trashed by our government) and central planning governments.
Thanks for making my point.
You can create any form of governing body you want to, but unless it is administered by robots, humans will eventually do what humans do - spoil and degrade to suit their own short-sighted and greedy desires.
No, thank you for making my point!
Aaaaaaand it looks like U.S. is going to war with Iran......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x58WOUh8L0
Is there anyone the US is not at some form of war with? (By 'US' I actually mean the Anglo-Zionist Globalists, including USUK and their vassal states -- such as Canada, Australia, and Japan -- also some of western Europe, altho the vassals seem a little more restless there these days and it looks like they may be close to throwing off the Globalists. Arguably, the US itself is a vassal of UK-Israel.) Unfortunately, the "US" as a country tends to get blamed for the sins of its Globalist parasites, since it is their most obvious host.
Check out this recent story, of a "Chinese-Russian-Iranian coalition opposing NATO". This certainly makes me wonder if we are not seeing a set of Allies (against the AZ-Globalists) now beginning to emerge. If USUK is stupid enough to continue, and I have no doubt that it is, it will find that "Iran" is not alone:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/did-a-chinese-russian-iranian-coalition-opp...
<<Talk about joint efforts between China, India, Russia and Iran against NATO expansion was augmented with plans for tripartite military talks between Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran. Defense ministers and military officials from all over the world gathered on April 16 at the landmark Radisson Royal or Hotel Ukraina, one of the best pieces of Soviet architecture in Moscow, which is known as one of the “Seven Sisters” that were constructed during Joseph Stalin’s time. The two-day event hosted by the Russian Defense Ministry was the fourth annual Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS). Civilian and military officials from over seventy countries, including NATO members, attended. Fifteen defense ministers took part in the event. However, aside from Greece, defense ministers of NATO countries did not participate in the conference. ... Foreign Minister Lavrov reminded the attendees that the possibilities of a dangerous world conflict were increasing due to the lack of concern by the US and NATO for the security of others and a lack of constructive dialogue. When making his argument, Lavrov cited US President Franklin Roosevelt by saying, “There can be no middle ground here. We shall have to take the responsibility for world collaboration, or we shall have to bear the responsibility for another world conflict.” “I believe that they formulated one of the main lessons of the most devastating global conflict in history: it is only possible to meet common challenges and preserve the peace through collective, joint efforts based on respect for the legitimate interests of all partners,” he explained about what world leaders learned from the Second World War. ... The most vigorous statement though was that of Iranian Defense Minister Hussein Dehghan. Brigadier-General Deghan said that Iran wanted China, India, and Russia to stand together in jointly opposing the eastward expansion of NATO and the threat posed by the alliance’s missile shield project to their collective security. ... More or less, this is the track that the Chinese are following. Minister Wanquan flatly told the MCIS that a fair world order was needed. The threat for the US is that a Chinese-Russian-Iranian coalition could, in Brzezinski’s own words, “be a potent magnet for other states dissatisfied with the status quo.” >>
I have been watching this group of Allies form gradually for a few years, ever since I saw this article, entitled 'The Eurasian Triple Entente: Touch Iran in a War, You Will Hear Russia and China':
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2012/01/22/eurasian-triple-entente...
<<With the inclusion of the Chinese, the Russian Federation and Iran are widely considered to be allies and partners. Together the Russia Federation, the People’s Republic of China, and the Islamic Republic of Iran form a barrier against the United States. The three form this through a triple alliance that is the core of a Eurasian coalition resisting Washington’s encroachment into Eurasia and America’s quest for global hegemony. The Chinese primarily face U.S. encroachment from East Asia and the Pacific, the Iranians primarily face U.S. encroachment in Southwest Asia, and the Russians primarily face U.S. encroachment in Eastern Europe. All three states also face U.S. encroachment in Central Asia and are wary of the U.S. and NATO military presence in Afghanistan. Iran can be characterized as a geo-strategic pivot. The entire geo-political equation in Eurasia will change on the basis of Iran’s political orbit. ...>>
We are the modern 'Nazi Axis' group of countries, as the Allies solidify against us, in this latest bankers' world war. Hopefully, the last. (I know, I know.)
WW3 is a currency war, and the Anglo-Zionist Axis is losing. The only question is what those of us, who are stuck in its evil vassal states, are going to do about it. The Axis may try to settle for domestic strife or even civil war. Destabilisation is what they're good at, and it's all they know, and they are our 'leaders'. This will over the next couple of years become less of a problem for the rest of the world, who are banding against us, and more of a problem for us, as their 'leadership' begins to be confined more and more to the countries they now have under their control. Baltimore is a symptom of what we can expect, in increasing measure, as the police state seeks to justify its presence thru an impoverished and desperate population and a compliant media. The Axis has been quietly undermining our populations and cultures for decades; the final phase comes as it loses power on the world stage, and its enforcers return home.
avoiding frivilous lawsuits is a big concern also
Since I started freelancing I've been bringing in $90 bucks/h… I sit at home and i am doing my work from my laptop. Th? best thing is that i get more time to spent with my family and with my kids and in the same time i can earn enough to support them... You can do it too. Start here... www.globe-report.com
Pushing paper (especially digital paper) requires no significant consumption of energy, now building something of real value another situation all together.
Remind me why we balied out all the useless fucking paper pushers again? Adapt or die.
tick tock...
Our whole economy is a paper-pushing system, LOP, based on a metastasizing pile of paper money. This economy begins and ends with paper, so it is natural that the only form of 'productivity' within it, involves pushing paper around. Think about it: in a fiat system, whose ONLY mandate is growth, it is completely inevitable that eventually you will have to pay people NOT to work. Production has limits and paper does not, so when you cannot pay production anymore, within its limits, the only outlet for 'growth' after that is payment for NOT producing.
Things will change when an asset-backed currency is introduced, which is of course the only viable alternative to paper money. An asset-backed currency, by its nature, necessitates real production and trade. The only question is whether each of us has the productive wherewithall to participate in it, or not. Those of us who cannot, will probably die off (and not too far in the future either).
I agree with you, with the caveat that paper money has been eclipsed by digital currency IMO for 20 years now. The big guys are getting transfers, not collecting cash. To be a nit-picker, there is no 'pile of paper', we are all just fighting over 1s and 0s in a Major Bank spreadsheet program.
Yes. :-) In my head as I was writing that, I wondered if I should have said "by paper I also include virtual money". What I really meant was, any 'money' that is NOT based upon real production! Thanks for the clarification.
Bullshit jobs are not an accident.
Neither is the fact that the high price of bullshit only costs everyine else everything........
I think that first book he mentions in the article is political porn reading for foreplay. I know it is for Kiki!
David Graebers Utopia of Rules.... Hypocritical rules changing all the time just to mess with peeps..... yea that's that foreplay of reading material for politicians.
Subtitled making it as we go along and how dare truths be legal!
This has been slowly taking shape over the last couple of decades and it's now becoming obvious, but it will only continue as long as the present system does. Society is starting to break down and communities are disappearing. The greedy at the top and bottom of the pile can only squeeze the middle so long until it disintegrates and we undergo a civilizational reset.....
This is a great post. It investigates something that is totally overlooked in modern America. I see this all around me, the vast army of people whose only job is compliance. I have a tiny small business, and local government alone is like having J.S. STALIN overseeing me. The City Hall literally demands compliance, form filling, filing of all sorts of plans, engineering drawings, inspections, I have had city and state inspectors, all of who required being Paid Off, via a so called inspection fee. I could go on! Too many people make their living overseeing the few private enterpises left, and they treat us like criminals for daring to try and earn money in private enterprise. I should not complain, because those higher up the samll business food chain are subject to much more STALINIST rules than me. They sit at desks and think of reasons I must file more papers with them, look for any tiny infraction to shut me down. It is WAR, and the enemy is hired by my tax dollars to wage their job justification war on all small business. The big businesses I directly compete with have their professional team to smooth their journy through regulation, plus, regulation they can afford, other small time folks can't afford, thus competition is nipped in the bud<
Next time somebody asks for a payoff, vomit on them.
Close, but look to the former Soviet Union for where this is headed....
It went more like this; "Next time somebody asks for a payoff, you have a choice, you pay them or you dissappear"
interesting times....
The threat of violence would only hasten me to precipitate that very event. However, before that I would make every effort to not place myself in any potential comprimising position. I do realize any contribution I make to the economy only supports the current criminal regime.
You are not alone to be sure.
"I do realize any contribution I make to the economy only supports the current criminal regime." -- bingo, rock, meet hard place.
Jack, to echo LOP's comment, can you not disappear? From the production lines, I mean. I know that isn't as easy as it sounds, but it is something I've been working on for years, and if you are willing to accept some (pretty serious) compromises in your life, it can be possible.
Zero interest rates accompany 'loans' to the biggest government-favoured corps. Such 'loans', of course, do not have to be paid back and never will be, so essentially we have a situation where the central banks are openly GIVING money to their cronies. Again, this is the opposite of production. Since a producer must not only generate real output, but also support these parasites and their cronies, who are in effect paid NOT to produce, it is only a matter of time before producers are starved out. And if a producer borrows to stay afloat, which price-fixing at high levels pretty much guarantees, then it starts to look like madness to remain in a commercial role. It seems to me that commercial producers are essentially signing up for gradual starvation, as their 'family to feed' begins to grow as exponentially as the paper market does.
This is what commercial producers -- real ones -- are up against.
I'm sorry to be so discouraging on top of what must already be an overwhelmingly discouraging situation, but if you think about it logically, to tell the truth I think disappearing from the ranks of 'productive assets' is really the only logical thing to do, to survive. We have had to accept a marginal, insecure, impoverished existence, but at least we can no longer be considered their farm harvest. It's a tough choice for anyone, but increasingly a decision each of us must make.
I work at the Space Center as a civilian contractor and I can assert with confidence that half to five eighths of a small project is waste and paperwork. On jobs over 50k, it is around twenty to twenty five percent waste and useless paperwork.
"Half to 5/8". You need a bit more deprograming.
Thanks for the perspective. My experience with software projects is that they are 50% rent-seeking / bureaucratic kabuki theater + paperwork.
We need a Basic Income to prevent the proliferation of rent-seeking-as-professionalism.
Upvoted for the thought, but I respectfully disagree. A 'guaranteed income' is, first of all, administered by central planners who are by definition removed from productivity. Any income that is NOT based on real productivity is doomed to fail, for the same reason it is failing now: it is artificial. Second, to the degree that the 'guaranteed', or 'basic', or 'minimum' income is handed out, that is the same degree that prices will rise and once again, those with first access to the money (i.e., the income distributors including lenders and renters) will benefit at the expense of those last in line for the currency.
It's the same trap that minimum wage falls into. Minimum wage is well-intentioned, but it benefits only those with first access (those who distribute it rather than its recipients) and its results are inevitably rising prices and falling employment. Food stamps and 'universal health care' would be other examples of this: well-intentioned but short-term solutions that appear to work only for a short time, before supply lines are gradually diluted until eventually they disappear.
An economy based on distribution, aka central planning, will always fail because natural productivity, within natural limits, cannot be controlled by legislation. Legislation no matter how well intentioned can only distort it, which makes natural problems artificially worse. Charity (which what such ideas are) also cannot be legislated by government because government does not actually exist for charitable purposes, as much as civic-minded people would like it to. Government is about control, which in many ways is the opposite of charity, and therefore tends to drive real charity out.
I respectfully disagree. That view implies that each income stream needs to correspond to a revenue stream -- e.g. you have to make back every dollar you invest, or otherwise you crash the currency. Its a compelling argument from an imaginary, Austrian point of view, but I disagree with it.
We are social creatures, 'social capital' is a real thing. The New Deal and the command economy of WWII represent non-productive investments in social capital which actually panned out. Our history is full of other examples -- such as silicon valley. Investment in computers didnt produce income streams generally ever, for those parties doing the investing. (e.g. DARPA invests 10 million, Xerox Parc makes 1 million, there was no ROI for the Fed Gov). The history of the modern computer is actually the history of government spending taken up by private industry which resulted in a world changing device.
So, in short, wanting a return on investment is a short-sighted strategy which is not going to serve humanity well. See what 'Austerity' has done in Europe for further examples of the social/economic consequences of cutting 'nonproductive' spending.
ucde I tried to upvote you, but your button is the only one not working for some reason on my browser. You both have good points.
Artificial demand for currency and commodities drove prices higher.
Made the looting of a nation possible.
Thank your friendly neighborhood derivatives trader.
You either produce or you are a leechfuck. There are a few people who are self sufficient.
This is your world: 'Here is the gadget you asked me to make for you. Have a nice day you leechfuck........'
A Lunitic: "This is your world: 'Here is the gadget you asked me to make for you. Have a nice day you leechfuck........'"
Actually I produce (also) and ask others to produce WHAT I NEED. I provide various services to various clients. I also produce something that you can put your hands on...... So I guess you're wrong
Based on the first chart, it looks like world war is bullish for bottom 90%.
Every 2-3 months the USDA sends me a pile of forms to fill out. Most of them are related to NASS, National Agricultural Statistics Service. One of them was 24 pages and said it would take me 10-15 minutes to complete. If I ignore the forms they send me letters and then they call me up and leave threatening messages on my VM ("your compliance is MANDATORY..."). All this chicken shit for 1 acre of organic veggies... and no chickens.
Don't get me started on the local municipality's rules and 8 different building, zoning and tax compliance "officers."
If you tell them you're an illegal, they will leave you alone.
Are you in the USDA Certified Organic "program"?
No, I'm not. My program would be run by NJ if I was, but they get $900 a year to 'administrate' (tax) and it ain't worth it.
I'm curious to know why NASS and USDA know you have a garden and why they think you need to report to them.
They get the data from the property tax rolls in NJ. Or, they got it from the IRS.
Government data mining, bitchez.
Cocksuckers
well unless you are going to end global trade and bring back the 'real' jobs which are mostly mindless low end paid labor for 'real americans' to do, how do you propose an end to bullshit jobs without proposing the beginning of a totally impoverished population that is dependent on theft , charity , welfare, etc.....
unless you propose anarchy and the re--establishment of REAL property rights meaning the end of most taxatoin, in which case, the regression back to a russian style post soviet poverty implosion will be more than mere theft, charity and welfare.
there are no exits. the bed is made. history marches forward. one way or another all the bullshit is going to continue until it can no longer.
Does anyone actually produce anything anymore? I work in IT, and 95% of my time is spent trying to dodge bureaucracy, and navigate mazes of paperwork produced by useless eaters. The problem is that with large organizations, the ability to effect meaningful change is 0. There was a time when I would have fought for the customers, but the organizations is a giant piece of granite, and an individual is like a razor blade. Fighting it only wears one out.
Better to fight granite like water, flow effortlessly around the granite, finding small cracks in the organization, and wait for a change in climate to freeze, and break it apart.
The analogy is very well put. I'm a mechanical engineer and saw a lot of it in the medical device industry.
Got out and now just function as a consultant working from home. Eat lunch outside, go for walks, spend time with family whenever I want, trips whatever.... life is much better out of the corporate tentacles. Guess that is my slow water flow, was just getting out.
No one knows this better than the Small Family Owned farmer.
NO, NOT the 5,000 acre COMMERCIAL farm
The small locally owned Natural farm(Free range Chickens, Pigs, and Veg.s)
Great book to read on it.
Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front
Joel Salatin
http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Want-To-Do-Illegal/dp/0963810952
GREAT read of where we are Oh, and he is a libertarian.
"Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat,”
- Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef October-18-2010 during his weekly Saturday night sermon
effendi means royalty
880,000 including many elected and unelected US policy makers as well as influential world leaders attended the funeral of Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
Serf for the 0.1%... aka the trickle-down economics
In the context of dissing the shit-factory that modern work has become, I'd like to mention that there is a subreddit dedicated to collecting such stories:
http://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork
You can read more there about people's real life stories from the depths of hell, aka the US American workforce.
Not only the "technocrat class"...my neighbours (who never lost their jobs or had their salaries cut in 2008-2009) in technician jobs, "skilled" trades (like welding, truck repair, etc.), in the protected resource industries (logging, fishing, oil and gas) or in government jobs and with seniority are doing VERY WELL thank you.
They have all the toys: the RVs, the boats, campers, quad bikes, NFLX, cell phones for whole family, HUGE mansions and hot tubs.
I'm curious...WHO are their customers, people willing to pay SO MUCH for their services?
These types of people are the NEW RICH too.
<<These types of people are the NEW RICH too.>>
They used to say this of New Money: Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves, in three generations.