Definition of Sinecure: why your job salary does not equate to your value in society

Sinecure: (noun)
an office or position that requires little or no work and that usually provides an income

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To the entitled people who use "I pay my taxes" and "I have a job" to justify their demands and feel "I'm better than people on government assistance"...

... If you're working a job and doing little to no work, you are essentially the same as someone receiving government assistance.

Holding a job does not make you 'better' and more 'deserving.' It just means you are in a position where you get paid.

Here's some reasons people who don't contribute much to society at their jobs get paid.
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Incompetence + legal complications to be fired 
-> people won't give you difficult work because they know you'll screw it up, but they still have to pay your salary.

https://www.quora.com/Employment-what-is-the-best-way-to-get-a-sinecure

John S. Thomas, Two career changes under my belt
Written Aug 23, 2014

Get a job in some obscure government agency. Lead a project. Mess it up. Not badly enough to be fired or demoted, but badly enough so that "they" won't put you in charge again.

Your responsibility will be reduced but not your salary. You now have a sinecure.

Full disclosure: I worked in a US government agency for 24 years.

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Power + corruption 
-> congratulations, your Dad has you earning $80k a year to bring him McNuggets

he rarely appeared for work. Adam Skelos’s former supervisor has previously testified that the senator’s son threatened to “smash” in his head after he questioned his work habits.But Anthony Bonomo, the company’s chief executive and owner, testified on Thursday that he was afraid to fire Mr. Skelos, 33, from his $78,000-a-year job because it might upset the senator
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/nyregion/testimony-at-trial-details-no-show-job-of-dean-skeloss-son.html


“Go get Dean chicken mcnuggets and fries. That will work,” Adam’s mom Gail wrote to him in 2013 as he leaned on her to get his dad’s help.
“Will do,” Adam obediently answered back.
http://nypost.com/2015/11/06/dean-skelos-son-made-thousands-for-no-show-jobs-feds/

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Privilege + some predesignated quota 
-> sit here and don't ask questions

Pretty much every work-study job at a university library.

My brother had a "work study" job during college (late 80s?). He sat for 4 hours a day, making sure nobody went through a set of doors. The doors were chained shut, with a big lock. Nobody ever approached the doors. If anyone would have, he had no instructions as to what he should do. He never found out what was on the other side.

I think that qualifies more as "make work," when you employ someone you actually have no work for

Well, it was Gannon University. A Catholic school. . .
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=658069

Locked behind those doors was a little piece of paper that read, "God does not exist."

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Those are three extreme examples, but those factors are what allows an average person to hold onto a job: a weighted combination of doing minimal mediocre work, personal connections to somebody higher up, and keeping one's head down to maintain some sort of status quo.

So instead of using an 'I go to work and I make money, so I'm a good person' argument, talk about what work you've done *at* your job that has made society a better place. Thank you.

'I may not be saving the world by doing my job, but I pay taxes which the government uses to hire other people to make society better, so we have roads and schools and hospitals.'

No, that's not the same. Come on. Shifting the responsibility to someone else, then taking credit for it? The same people who complain about taxes being high, and the government wasting their money.

If you use going to work and paying taxes to justify your exemplary standing as a citizen, I don't want to hear about what someone you've never met has done. I want to hear about the work you do.