I just ran across a great review of a book, Bullshit Jobs, that was a best seller in 2018 and outlines a theory that remains influential. Here’s an excerpt (with one typo fixed), but it’s all worth reading:

Graeber [the author of the book] estimates that roughly half of all work fits his fake job categorization, which implies that the economy’s productive capacity is roughly twice the output we actually get. It would be a pretty big deal if this were true: we could have a lot more leisure, and a lot more stuff. And there are people motivated to make this happen! The strongest single argument against Graeber’s book is: did anyone at Bain or McKinsey read it? What about KKR and Blackstone? Did any owner of any business of any size read it and say: “Wait a sec! That’s right! Most jobs really are fake jobs designed to make rich people feel good about themselves. But what makes me feel good about myself is having more money, so I’m going to start firing people and keeping the money.”