All the way back at the beginning of the pandemic, the Prime Minister (Scott Morrison) when questioned about what an 'essential worker' was said that "If you've got a job, then you are an essential worker." As someone who travels 88km to get to and from work every day, I get to look out of the train window and see for myself that the world is a complex place and that it is best to think about the kosmos as one massive swirly thing with parts that all work together. It seems to me though that there probably are some workers which actually are more 'essential' than others and as I read articles in the news that more people are being laid off and no longer fit the Prime Minister's (Scott Morrison) definition of what an 'essential worker' is, I can't help but feel that it sounds a little bit cruel.
As someone who is way way left of centre on the economic spectrum, I tend to look at everyone in the economy as those mythical creatures which are called households; who are responsible for buying things and in doing so, they are the most essential things which keep the wheels of the economy spinning. Back in 1929 everyone got really sad and stopped spending money, which meant that when they weren't buying stuff, that money didn't flow to firms who also didn't buy stuff and in turn didn't employ people to make the stuff. When everyone gets sad all at once and everyone stops buying stuff, it is called a depression.
If you were to strip back the economy to just the barest of wheels, then you find out essentially who are the essential 'essential workers' and in essence find out who you can really strip away. I do not think that there are really that many kinds of workers in the economy and this is the essential list:
1. Scientists
Scientists are the first people to do anything. They are the ones who by invention and experiment, work out how to make stuff and how the world works.
2. Engineers
Engineers are the people who build stuff. They are the ones who come after the scientists and physically build the systems and the infrastructure which makes the world run.
3. Technicians
These are the people who come along after the engineers and they make sure that the systems and the infrastructure runs properly.
4. Operators
These are the people who operate the machinery of the economy which actually makes the stuff that the economy has to sell. These are the people who do most of the real work in the economy.
5. Artists
These are the people who become skilled at operating the stuff in the world and make it pretty and beautiful. Artists are also employed to give form to the stuff that is being produced.
6. Recorders
These are the people who keep the records of what has been done. These are the people who you talk to if you want to plan for the future because unless you are flying a plane, every task and every decision is essentially flying backwards; based upon whatever happened before.
7. Rulemakers
These are the people who look at what's happened and decide upon the common rules that everyone will play together with.
8. Managers
These are the people who direct others to do stuff. Management is about arranging all of the things so that whatever it is can continue.
End of list!
Literally everyone in the world who has a job can be classified according to these eight categories. If you can think of anything else then I'd like to know about it but speaking with the mindset of an engineer (I built the list), I reduced this to the fewest number of components.
If the pandemic has taught us anything, then what it has taught us is that the people who are essentially the most essential, are the operatives and the technicians. If literally everyone else in the world instantly lost their job, then these are the people who would keep the world turning. Admittedly it would be frightfully unpleasant but that's to be expected when you strip away everything to the fewest number of components.
The real irony is that the economy hasn't been designed by the scientists who would have found new ways to do things, nor the engineers who build the systems, nor the technicians who run the systems, nor the operatives who build and make the things, nor the artists who would have made society prettier and more beautiful, nor the recorders because they can not design anything, but by the rulemakers and the managers. The sad thing is that the rulemakers and the managers largely got to those positions because they made the rules which got them there and then managed the economy to keep them there.
The poor dum-dums who actually make stuff and do the vast majority of the work in the economy are paid the fewest rewards for doing so. If they were the ones who actually stopped working, then the whole kosmos would stop spinning, everyone would stop buying stuff and when everyone gets sad all at once and everyone stops buying stuff, it is called a depression.
However what we've seen during the pandemic is that the government for its part wants to defund the scientists, some of the engineers, pay the technicians and the operators even less, destroy the artists, destroy government recorders, and then destroy the teaching capabilities of all these people; then give even more rewards of the economy to the rulemakers and the managers. I'd argue that the people in those last two categories just stayed home and did nothing all day, most of the economy would be none the wiser. I find it also cruel that when faced with the pandemic and the possibility that the disease might kill people, they're quite happy to let the technicians and the operators face the risk; while they stay home anyway.
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