Here’s some quantification, from Robert Gordon’s The Rise and Fall of American Growth. In 1910, 47% of US jobs were what Gordon classifies as “disagreeable” (farming, blue-collar labor, and domestic service), and only 8% of jobs were “non-routine cognitive” (managerial and professional). By 2009, only 3% of jobs were “disagreeable” and over 37% were “non-routine cognitive”. See full chart below.
I did not say or mean that agricultural is non-vocational. But I think it is not the ideal vocation for 50+% of the workforce.
Vocation is not the same as choice, but when you have choice, you are more likely to find your vocation. That is the point.
Vocation is not the same as choice, but when you have choice, you are more likely to find your vocation. That is the point.
I think we have little idea how “vocation” works. It could be like marriage where cases of arranged marriage don’t reduce the likelihood that someone develops love.
I think my strongest disagreement here is that the category of “disagreeable” does not cleave reality at the joints, and that the category “non-routine cognitive” contains a lot of work which is not, in fact, intellectually or spiritually fulfilling in the way implied.
Is that disagreement enough to change the (predicted) truth value of Jason’s claim though?
I’ll admit to being biased here. I live in a rapidly-developing middle-income country; the difference in opportunity between my generation and my parents is nearly as vast as between 1910 and 2009 in Gordon’s statistics. To me, while I agree wholeheartedly that Gordon’s categorization doesn’t cleave reality at the same joints Jason’s does, it’s still ~irrelevant in that it doesn’t change my mind on the directionality of Jason’s claim.
Here’s some quantification, from Robert Gordon’s The Rise and Fall of American Growth. In 1910, 47% of US jobs were what Gordon classifies as “disagreeable” (farming, blue-collar labor, and domestic service), and only 8% of jobs were “non-routine cognitive” (managerial and professional). By 2009, only 3% of jobs were “disagreeable” and over 37% were “non-routine cognitive”. See full chart below.
I did not say or mean that agricultural is non-vocational. But I think it is not the ideal vocation for 50+% of the workforce.
Vocation is not the same as choice, but when you have choice, you are more likely to find your vocation. That is the point.
I think we have little idea how “vocation” works. It could be like marriage where cases of arranged marriage don’t reduce the likelihood that someone develops love.
I think my strongest disagreement here is that the category of “disagreeable” does not cleave reality at the joints, and that the category “non-routine cognitive” contains a lot of work which is not, in fact, intellectually or spiritually fulfilling in the way implied.
Is that disagreement enough to change the (predicted) truth value of Jason’s claim though?
I’ll admit to being biased here. I live in a rapidly-developing middle-income country; the difference in opportunity between my generation and my parents is nearly as vast as between 1910 and 2009 in Gordon’s statistics. To me, while I agree wholeheartedly that Gordon’s categorization doesn’t cleave reality at the same joints Jason’s does, it’s still ~irrelevant in that it doesn’t change my mind on the directionality of Jason’s claim.