[htss2013]

>It is a good thing that we have an economy where there are jobs for people to do things that 'don't need to be done'. This is the only way that a highly specialized capitalist society can provide income and purpose for everyone, and drive further innovation. People need income and jobs, even as we add more automation.

For most families with two parents who work, it would be better for one to stay home and tend to life and children. It's inefficient, alienating and demoralizing to have both parents forced into specialized wage labor that amounts to a useless make work.

[kube-system]

Well yes, the optimum number of full time jobs in a household is >=1 and <2. This isn't really a function of useless jobs existing or not, but more of a function of CoL and income distribution.

[htss2013]

COL is itself a function of the prevalence of useless jobs. They increase the cost of everything, they increase the need for infrastructure, they create friction for real work, etc.

Put another way, if society allocates more resources to people who work outside the home doing useless things, then fewer resources are available to people staying in the home doing useful things. One way this manifests is inflation, ie, higher COL.