Are YOU necessary?

I recently read a terrific article by Tim Kreider called "The Busy Trap".  In it, Kreider talks about how everyone seems busy these days.  People -- all people, including over-scheduled kids -- are trapped in a "hysteria" (his word, not mine) surrounding the need to be busy.  We feel guilty, Kreider, suggests when we are NOT busy, when we actively choose to do something lazy or not strictly necessary.  Kreider argues that our busyness is a way of finding meaning in our life; our lives cannot be meaningless or empty if we are busy, right?


Kreider makes a great case for the lazy ambitious person.  But that is a subject for another blog entry.  This post is about a comment that is really obiter dicta in the article as a whole.  Embedded within Kreider's article is the observation that many of us associate our value as a person with what we do for a living.  It's a core part of our identity.  For example, what we do is often the starting point in many conversations: "So, what do you do?"  [Note: I've tried answering "as little as possible", but most people don't get the joke.  After all, shouldn't people be trying to do as much as possible?]  


We've narrowed our identities down to this one dimension, our work.  This is problematic for many reasons, not the least of which is Kreider's observation that many of us have jobs that don't really matter any more, especially in the world of intelligent devices, computers, and robotics.  What happens to our identity when our job doesn't have some tangible societal benefit?  Kreider suggests that we deal with this issue by becoming busy:

I can’t help but wonder whether all this histrionic exhaustion isn’t a way of covering up the fact that most of what we do doesn’t matter.  

Kreider goes on to make the following statement, which I have now dubbed "The Kreider Test of Occupational Necessity":

"More and more people in this country no longer make or do anything tangible; if your job wasn’t performed by a cat or a boa constrictor in a Richard Scarry book I’m not sure I believe it’s necessary." 

So...is YOUR job necessary?  And if your job fails the Kreider test (we'll broaden the test to allow for jobs done by any animal in a Richard Scarry book), are YOU necessary?


I can't answer the second question for you.  I can tell you that I think you are necessary and valuable, but really, you have to claim this truth for yourself.  I can, however, help you determine if your job is necessary.  I dug out my old Richard Scarry books and investigated what jobs are "necessary", according to the Kreider Test of Occupational Necessity (KTON).  I present my findings below.  I must warn you: they may shock you.


Let's start with some of the basics.  You won't be surprised to learn that doctors, dentists, policemen, firemen, farmers, and teachers are all "necessary" according to the KTON:

My Uncle used to say, "Farming is everyone's bread and butter." 

A teacher.  Hooray! I'm necessary!

Nurses: RESPECT.  

Some nurses tell me that all doctors are pigs.

Those are some serious teeth, Dr. Walrus.  I hope you floss.

Something tells me that these firemen won't be making the annual Firemen's Calendar.

Who needs police officers when you have sheriffs who are bears?

The trades (defined broadly) are also well-represented:

Here's a carpenter to build your house...

...and a house painter to paint it.

And here's a milk bunny to bring milk right to your front door.  Awesome, right?

Now at this stage, some of you may be getting restless.  Sure, we need medical people and people to grow food and people to teach stuff.  But where are the people who know how to manage all these other people's money?  Where are the bankers?  The traders?  Well, there are some business creatures...

My Opa owned a little store just like this lion.  But this lion has more hair than my Opa did.

Here's a tiny little clerk working away on a big old typewriter.  

But, unfortunately, none of them look like they work on Bay Street.  Cheer up, Bankers, Traders, Money Managers!  It turns out that lawyers, engineers, accountants, and scholars (i.e., people who are too important to be called "teachers") haven't made the cut either.  But musicians are on the "Necessary" list.  Ouch!  That's got to be a blow to some Bay Street egos...

This Jazz Rabbit does NOT play in a Bay Street Garage Band.

Who else is Necessary, according to the KTON?  Let's have a look....

Hooray, says the Truck Driver.  "I'm Necessary!"

Mechanics are necessary.  Especially if you drive American cars.

And the Bankers jealously say, "Ah Flying Foxes!  Why are pilots Necessary when we are not?"

Librarians take us places....in our imagination...

I love Croco-Bread.  It's reptilicious.

Oh my Lord, please don't let Chef Bunny be frying up some rabbit...

I'm always a bit suspicious of cats with fishing rods.

Ah, people that make things "GO" and people that provide food for our tummies are all Necessary.  Thank goodness!  I'd hate to think that bakers do not know how important they really are to our well-being.  Have you hugged a baker lately?  

Who else is on the KTON?  

Thank goodness!! John Wayne is Necessary!

You do NOT want to get into a bar fight with a bear who has been at sea for 6 months...

So....cowboys and sailors make the cut, but people in IT don't?  What about that guy who invented Facebook?  How does this society shaped by KTON govern itself?  Where are the politicians, policy makers, economists, and lobbyists?  These people aren't Necessary.  But Artists and Crafts creatures sure are!  It makes sense, really.  Some people feed our bodies, while others feed our souls...

This is a Flamingo Dancer.  Get it?  Flamingo/Flamenco?  Heh heh.

Glass blowers made the cut.  And they don't even work on Bay Street!

We need house painters, but also Artist painters.  Who else will paint pictures of our newly painted houses

Singers drown out the drone of politicians.

You can tell this Fox is a crafts creature by the way he wears his beret.

You know, it strikes me that the KTON is a good ego check.  Many of the jobs that are held by society's so-called elite and its power brokers aren't represented, but the people who take care of us, feed us, shelter us, teach us, carry us around, and enrich our lives are on the list.  It's the latter group of people who are often overlooked, while the former strut around with their position, power, and wealth as though they are God's gift to us.  But as the recent financial crisis and scandal after scandal (e.g., Barclays, Rajat Gupta, Goldman Sachs,the Madoff Brothers, and Enron, to name just a few) show, these wealthy and powerful elite often do not have the public's interest at heart; they serve themselves and only themselves.  With attitudes like that, it's probably a good thing that we keep them off our Necessary list.  After all, to make it on the Necessary list, you should be contributing something to society, not manipulating society and its institutions for your own ends.  I'll take a glass blower over a Barcley's banker any day.