> “middlemen” (e.g. accounting, salespeople, lawyers, bureaucrats, DEI strategists).
I wouldn't call any of those positions "middlemen", though. A middleman is an entity that sits between a producer and a purchaser and takes a cut, usually by connecting the two. None of the examples listed are that.
(That said "salespeople" are in the middle layer under your definition as well)
The other term I was thinking of using for this post was "bullshit jobs." So titling my post "bullshit jobs are real jobs" but I didn't want to fight against the motte-and-bailey of specific jobs being possibly bullshit jobs.
("coordinators" presumed the conclusion too much and also points to a specific thing )
Middlemen are brokers, intermediaries. Almost every job is in the middle of something including the ones labeled “real” - e.g. manufacturing uses some things to produce others. Some of the jobs you refer to as middle, are not actually middle - e.g. accounting.
You probably wanted to refer to white collar jobs or maybe just services.
Middleman are not what you think and your argument sounds off from the bat just because you use that word.
A sentiment often expressed by my dad as the 'bean counters' organize 1000s of people across 100s of companies and tons and tons of materials and machinery to all arrive on site and preform specific tasks in an efficient manner.
I don’t know why one would classify an accountant as a middleman.
Given that much of technology originates and is perfected by the adult content industry, for those unaware, payments is no exception to this rule just as live video and audio software development was directly impacted from this adult content demand. It is claimed that sex sells and I can attest 100% to this claim being correct as a movie was even made about the payment system I was foundational in building and that movie was ironically called "Middlemen". I was younger then and the personal stories from those days I carry could have a great mini series created.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Men_(film)
Stay Healthy!
LinchZhang•2mo ago
Like many populist intuitions, this intuition is completely backwards. Middlemen are extremely important! Coordination problems are real problems, and the bottlenecks to global wealth and flourishing.
The post goes into details for why.
ToucanLoucan•2mo ago
kykat•2mo ago
christophilus•2mo ago
ToucanLoucan•2mo ago
LinchZhang•2mo ago
exmadscientist•2mo ago
That's bad writing.
ToucanLoucan•2mo ago
> A merchant a) physically moves wheat to where it’s scarce (and valued more), b) physically moves beans to where it’s scarce (and valued more), c) figures out an exchange rate, and d) takes on risks of spoilage and banditry. For her efforts, the merchant takes a fractional cut.
This is not a middle man, this is logistics! An entire segment of the global economy, and not a small one!
> Ten people want to build a bridge. But they face problems: Who works on the foundation vs. the supports? How do we prevent the left side team from building something incompatible with the right side team? When is the foundation strong enough to start building on top? How do we know if we’re on track or behind schedule?
This is project management, also not a middle man!
Like I get nobody likes being criticized but dude, your entire post is resting on a bad foundation. If you start off an article about cars talking about how jetskis are the future of highway transportation, I'm not gonna take that seriously either, because you fumbled it on the starting line.
russelldjimmy•2mo ago
LinchZhang•2mo ago
russelldjimmy•2mo ago
Edit: while writing my earlier comment, I didn’t realise that you were the author. I did not mean to say your title is clickbait. I was only trying to make a concession to anyone who thought so.
LinchZhang•2mo ago
AndrewDucker•2mo ago
vlovich123•2mo ago
That’s why marketplaces like TaskRabbit struggle to generalize and grow. Contracting firms often struggle in similar ways and try to put clauses in their contracts to retain their relevance.