this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2026
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Eliminating terrible jobs may come with new, somewhat less crushing ones.
The reality of the labor market on its lower end is that plenty of jobs are unnecessary and artificial. They are meant to generate employment while not reducing working hours or (re-)educating people to take jobs that are actually in demand. It is a simple band-aid, that is easy for the government and good for capital (as it gets both incentives from the government and a pass on building a gig economy).
The more terrible, crushing jobs we eliminate, the more the government is forced to actually do something meaningful about the labor.
Delivering food is hardly what I'd consider "terrible." Delivering food for big tech companies who see you as expendable trash is though. The only reason why these robots are being made is not to make the delivery people's lives easier; it's to pay them even less.
There's not one, but plenty of terrible jobs.
I've been at the slaughterhouse, and it is indeed one of the most horrific experiences I had. The smell of stale blood, the heat, the constant repetition, and normalized violence. It takes a mental toll.
And working in delivery (which I also did) takes a physical one - especially when you're a walking courier, which these things are aimed to replace. Back problems, damaged feet, severe calluses, chafing, muscle pain, high risk of all sorts of traumas...the list goes on. Add to that that the rates paid often force these people to overwork way past their healthy physical limits, and you get a recipe for disaster.
Students choose it, because they need an unqualified job that can adapt to their study schedule. Gig work does that. But the rest is pure exploitation, which finds its reflection in health issues, lack of time and fulfillment, and, in case of students - a fall in academic performance.