Beyond David Graeber: How state intervention creates ‘bullshit jobs’

Alexis Sémanne

Economic Affairs, 2025, vol. 45, issue 3, 395-416

Abstract: David Graeber describes the malaise of ‘bullshit jobs’ but misattributes their cause to capitalism. I offer a different account: a bullshit job is usually one that would not survive without regulation, subsidy, or legal privilege. Such roles proliferate through state‐driven mechanisms: (1) regulatory inflation that converts productive effort into compliance; (2) distorted economic calculation when prices and profit‐and‐loss signals are muted; (3) the rise of symbolic labour; and (4) monetary interventions that pull talent into administrative and speculative niches. I distinguish perceived alienation from economic value, advance testable cross‐country predictions, sketch an empirical agenda, and propose reforms (legal simplification, deregulation) to reduce meaningless work.

Date: 2025
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