It dawned on me today, during a moment of clarity in amongst the mayhem of my thoughts, just how many employment opportunities there out there that just don't seem to make any sense nor actually serve a purpose.
I'm an engineer by trade so I console myself at night with the thought that I at least contribute slightly to the betterment of the world by helping to make things we need. I admit that the things I help to make aren't absolutely 100% vital for the improvement of humankind as a species, but it is better than some.
Political spin doctors for example. Why do we need people who's job it is to tell you what the politician means when he/she speaks? Surely the politician can do that for himself, no? Simply by being a bit more honest? I guess it would also help if other people then didn't pick every single syllable uttered apart to try and determine some hidden meaning so we could kill two birds with one stone there.
Take all the doctors, teachers, garbage collectors and firemen (just some examples of course) out of the world and I imagine it would grind to a halt reasonably quickly (though I guess we could do without all those surgeons carrying out breast enlargements).
But is the world really going to suffer if one day people have to resort to buying their own clothes instead of getting someone to do it for them? Or how about people manage their own lives rather than rely on a "life coach" to talk them through it?! Part of the problem I suppose is that we have a world population spiralling out of control and there seems to be a need to keep everyone busy but the proliferation of jobs that seem to exist just because they can is bizarre.
And so many of the careers that are becoming more prevalent these days actually exist because people simply don't trust each other not to take advantage. For example, the only reason football agents exist is due to the fact that the players don't believe the club and the club doesn't believe the player. So they have to get everything written down and use about three go-betweens, all of whom take a nice handy chunk of cash for performing a function that we could happily do without if we just trusted each others word.
I appreciate that, as per usual, I am making some sweeping generalisations about what people do without making any attempt to understand why or how, but the general thrust of this blog still stands I think. The amount of money, time, resources and energy that could be diverted away from these roles and towards functions which can help to benefit society is staggering.
It is high time we started as a race to put aside mistrusts, greed and envy and begin to work together to face and overcome the challenges coming over the next few decades and centuries. And if the result of this is that I've got to work out for myself what so-and-so MP from wherever is saying then I'll take my chances.
Today's #randomfactoftheday - The Arctic Tern has the longest regular migration of any known animal. They average 44,300 miles per year!
Today's #badjokeoftheday -I tell this joke far too often but I love it. Q: What do you call a one-eyed dinosaur? A: Doyouthinkhesaurus
Today's #websiteoftheday - The London Tube System, mapped accurately rather than a simple representation (http://www.london-tubemap.com/)
On this day: 1959, "The Day the Music Died" - The Big Bopper (28), Ritchie Valens (17), Buddy Holly (22) and pilot Roger Peterson (21) are killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.
Till next time,
DT
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