[JohnFen]

Boy did this set off my pendant side!

> “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.

[polishdude20]

I'll be the pedant and say the word is "pedant" :)

[OneMorePerson]

Can I double down and say the word should be "pedantic" hah

[EdwardDiego]

Both are acceptable though. My <noun> side, and my <adjective> side both work.

[JohnFen]

Haha! Perfect!

[LinchZhang]

I agree I used the word substantially more expansively than some other people use it. That's why I defined it in the beginning so people can understand the local scoping of the relevant word! :)

(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 )

[random3]

Your definition is off in a few ways:

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.

[llbbdd]

Salespeople do provide a service - selling.