Book Titles

We expect a job to serve some purpose or have some meaning and are deeply demoralized if we find it does not.

Some originally theological notions about work are so universally accepted that they simply can’t be questioned.

…not only is the social value of work usually in inverse proportion to its economic value (the more one’s work benefits others, the less one is likely to be paid for it), but many people have come to accept this situation as morally right…

When someone describes his job as pointless or worthless, he is necessarily operating within some sort of tacit theory of value: an idea of what would be a worthwhile occupation, and therefore what is not.

To a large degree, needs are just other people’s expectations.

There’s little more depressing than enforced gaiety.

If you’re defrauding others of their wealth… you’re really stealing the real, productive work that went into creating that wealth.

…the very existence of bullshit jobs raises certain problems for any labor theory of value.

…saying all value comes from work is obviously not the same thing as saying that all work produces value.

…value itself is a constant political argument. No one is ever quite sure what it is.