it’s not such a big deal

A certain paradigm was initiated during the Great Depression. It looked then as if the capitalist system might have a fatal flaw: unemployment. John Maynard Keynes said, “Let the government hire the unemployed during a depression or recession. Unemployment drags the economy down (less effective demand for goods and services). Providing paychecks is good for people, families, and the whole economy.” Even if the government just provides make-work employment, well, it’s better for people, families, and the economy than unemployment.

“Government as employer of the last resort.” Why not? The country is rich. Maintain social stability and keep the economy humming by having the government provide a lot of employment. Socialists and liberals said, “Let the government model good employment practices relative to the profit-grubbing private enterprises. Provide good benefits and humanistic working conditions.”

These were perfectly fine ideas, but not economically necessary ideas. The mega-governments and the mega-corporations are both so big, far-flung, impersonal, and bureaucratic that a lot of their employment is less than life-sustaining-necessary. People living at village scale can see and do what’s life-sustaining-necessary. Us people living within the hypermodern Leviathan of mega-institutions and mega-technologies can’t see nothin’. We just try to get and then retain our jobs and do our little cog-like tasks to keep the paychecks coming. The system grinds on producing widgets and providing massages, software and swill. So when Musk lays off half the staff at Twitter or half the employees of the federal government, well, it may be dreadful for the laid-off individuals and their families, but from the standpoint of the life-sustenance of the Whole Irrational Thing it’s not such a big deal.