The Decline of Work
When you slack off and withhold your human capital, you steal from everyone.
Excerpts:
Mike Rowe of “Dirty Jobs” fame said, “We are lending money we don’t have to kids who can’t pay it back to train them for jobs that no longer exist.” So they are underemployed. Or quit. Or seek purpose and balance.
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I’ve written often that profits are a measure of the societal wealth created by corporations, and that the price paid for products and services is the minimum amount of value created. If that weren’t true, we could all grow our own food or assemble our own iPhones. But we can’t. Jobs are very much like profits. All jobs, from the machine-learning coder to the oil-rig worker to the Safeway bagger, increase societal wealth. Why? Because we don’t have to do those jobs ourselves. Think of pay as personal profits. Every (legal) job adds value, and if you slack off or don’t deploy your human capital and live up to your potential, you’re stealing societal wealth from the rest of us. That’s selfish.
People generally are paid what they are worth. Well, except for jobs with artificial shortages such as doctors, lawyers and those requiring occupational licensing. Or those bumped up by minimum-wage laws. Or public-sector-union jobs such as teachers. OK, that’s a lot of skewed salaries! Higher pay comes from productivity and education, not government scheming....
Advice from Mike Rowe: “Stop looking for the ‘right’ career, and start looking for a job. Any job. Forget about what you like. Focus on what’s available. Get yourself hired. Show up early. Stay late. Volunteer for the scut work. Become indispensable.” He’s right—and build human capital. A job already has a purpose.
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