Do we all really have to do jobs which are super productive for the economy?

In 1984 society demanded I was a good citizen and got a job, thus contribute to society, through taxes and they didn't care if it was efficient for the economy.

That's how I remember it as a 16 year old. I mean they got off your case if you simply went out and got a job. Nobody cared what it was and if the job was good for the economy.

My my, how things have changed. I was fascinated to read the excellent writer Michael Read suggest in the Australian Financial Review that commentators were concerned that the NDIS had sucked workers from more efficient jobs.

He went on to report that the e61 Institute think tank was very concerned about this issue.

Mr Read noted the concerns that the care industry needed to become more productive.

This is just my opinion, but it's very clear to me that the government has merged the national employment system with other ministerial portfolios concerning economic growth, even though such portfolios have not merged into the employment portfolio officially.

My own take on this is that if you want an efficient economy, you need workers to do jobs where they are using their natural talents. If you stop people from working with their natural talents in favour of the economy, then how can you expect to create a booming economy?

It is possible to find some middle ground and ask all citizens to take leave from what they do to help out in jobs which are good for the economy for a small period of time. This can be for a few months when they are unemployed. I don't agree, however, that we should put it on people that they should be straddled into jobs they can not perform with their natural skills for the rest of their lives. I think market forces can take a small step back and allow people to make their own choices.

The western world has been about market forces since the neo-liberalism of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, but a few short years prior to that, it was more based on liberalism. We certainly need more balance between the two. I think that's a moderate viewpoint and not a left-wing comment.

Great countries are created because great people do great things. We have to be very careful not to stop that process from being carried out to its ultimate realisation ― Joseph Walz