Jobs that either don’t contribute in any meaningful way or jobs where one would be better off if they were paid to be on call.

  • Semi-Hemi-Demigod
    21•1 year ago

    As evidence I present the Irish Bank Strike:

    [A]lmost the entire banking system of Ireland went on strike after an industrial dispute in 1970. The strike lasted nearly six months, yet the economy escaped unscathed.

    People used cheques to manage large payments and, while the banks were closed, risk of default on the cheques was shouldered by neighbourhood pubs.

    Here’s the Bank of England’s Ben Norman and Peter Zimmerman:

    How did payees manage this risk for such a prolonged period? Notoriously, local publicans were well-placed to judge the creditworthiness of payers. (They had an informed view of whether the liquid resources of would-be payers were stout or ailing!)

    For example, John Dempsey, a publican in Balbriggan, near Dublin, was “…holding cheques for thousands of pounds, but I’m not worried. The last bank strike went on for 12 weeks and I didn’t have a single ‘bouncer’. … I deal only with my regulars … I refuse strangers. I suppose I’ve been able to keep a few local factories going.”

    • @MajorHavoc
      5•1 year ago

      That is so cool. Thank you for sharing it.

      It reminds me of what makes me continue to be bearish on BitCoin.

      I worked at a pretty advanced technical place, with a woman, let’s call her Janet.

      If the system misplaced 2 cents, Janet would hunt you down and make you find it.

      All that tech could melt down tomorrow, and I would still do business there, as long as Janet was there.

      If the entire world economy collapses, I will still bank with Janet.

      If Janet is using pen and paper, I trust that’s good enough for me. If Janet is using one massive Excel file, fine by me. If Janet starts accepting payment in weirdly shaped rocks, I will accept weirdly shaped rocks as payment, too.

      And when Janet adopts BitCoin, then I’ll be all-in on BitCoin.