존 메이너드 케인스는 1930년에 20세기가 끝날 무렵이면 충분히 주당 15시간 노동여건을 달성하게 될 것이라고 예견한 바 있다. 그로부터 100년 가까운 시간이 지난 지금도 이는 달성되지 못했다. 왜 그럴까? 저자는 선진국에서 충분히 기술적으로 발전했음에도 불구하고, ‘일만을 위한 일’이 엄청나게 증가했다는 데 주목한다. 생산의 자동화는 인류에게 여가 시간을 주는 대신 생산직을 없애고, 사실상 ‘가짜 일’을 하는 거대한 사무직 관리 업무 부문을 팽창시켰다.

From David Graeber, the bestselling author of The Dawn of Everything and Debt—“a master of opening up thought and stimulating debate” (Slate)—a powerful argument against the rise of meaningless, unfulfilling jobs…and their consequences.

Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative essay titled “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs.” It went viral. After one million online views in seventeen different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer.

There are hordes of people—HR consultants, communication coordinators, telemarketing researchers, corporate lawyers—whose jobs are useless, and, tragically, they know it. These people are caught in bullshit jobs.

Graeber explores one of society’s most vexing and deeply felt concerns, indicting among other villains a particular strain of finance capitalism that betrays ideals shared by thinkers ranging from Keynes to Lincoln. “Clever and charismatic” (The New Yorker), Bullshit Jobs gives individuals, corporations, and societies permission to undergo a shift in values, placing creative and caring work at the center of our culture. This book is for everyone who wants to turn their vocation back into an avocation and “a thought-provoking examination of our working lives” (Financial Times).