There is a mismatch between the jobs that people want to do and the jobs that need doing. Wage differences help to reduce the mismatch.
I think this could be an interesting topic to explore: What are the most unwanted and highly paid jobs, that a rational person might still choose to do? -- There could be some biases, so the job is actually not as horrible as it seems. Or it could be something that people don’t do only because of irrational fears. Or something that doesn’t seem like making a lot of money, which actually does. Or something else that most people get wrong.
There are some problems with this, though. Some unwanted jobs can still be low-status and not paid well, because someone poor enough will be forced to do them anyway. For example, working with garbage. (Maybe the problem is that no one wants to do it, but everyone can, so enough poor people will be forced to.) You could probably save some money by buying a house with number 13, but that’s not a regular income. Some kinds of crime could be very profitable on average, but there are also moral problems with this, not merely inconvenience or unpleasantness.
So far, I have only three ideas that seem like they could be good: First, doing a job which seems very dangerous (and is rewarded like one), but actually isn’t. Such as being a policeman, but specializing on something that lets you avoid any actual danger. Not sure if this is possible. Second, prostitution done smartly, which means being expensive, acting high-status, and spending enough money on lawyers and bodyguards to keep it legal and safe. Third, starting a low-intensity religious cult, by which I mean something where your followers don’t leave their jobs and families, but only pay you for prayers and blessing. I suspect more people don’t do this even if they are atheists, because they still have an irrational fear that the real gods would punish them for pretending to have supernatural powers.
I think this could be an interesting topic to explore: What are the most unwanted and highly paid jobs, that a rational person might still choose to do? -- There could be some biases, so the job is actually not as horrible as it seems. Or it could be something that people don’t do only because of irrational fears. Or something that doesn’t seem like making a lot of money, which actually does. Or something else that most people get wrong.
I think this could be an interesting topic to explore: What are the most unwanted and highly paid jobs, that a rational person might still choose to do? -- There could be some biases, so the job is actually not as horrible as it seems. Or it could be something that people don’t do only because of irrational fears. Or something that doesn’t seem like making a lot of money, which actually does. Or something else that most people get wrong.
There are some problems with this, though. Some unwanted jobs can still be low-status and not paid well, because someone poor enough will be forced to do them anyway. For example, working with garbage. (Maybe the problem is that no one wants to do it, but everyone can, so enough poor people will be forced to.) You could probably save some money by buying a house with number 13, but that’s not a regular income. Some kinds of crime could be very profitable on average, but there are also moral problems with this, not merely inconvenience or unpleasantness.
So far, I have only three ideas that seem like they could be good: First, doing a job which seems very dangerous (and is rewarded like one), but actually isn’t. Such as being a policeman, but specializing on something that lets you avoid any actual danger. Not sure if this is possible. Second, prostitution done smartly, which means being expensive, acting high-status, and spending enough money on lawyers and bodyguards to keep it legal and safe. Third, starting a low-intensity religious cult, by which I mean something where your followers don’t leave their jobs and families, but only pay you for prayers and blessing. I suspect more people don’t do this even if they are atheists, because they still have an irrational fear that the real gods would punish them for pretending to have supernatural powers.
Any other ideas?
See also: “Searching For One-Sided Tradeoffs” on Slate Star Codex.
See the last paragraph of the post linked to above.