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Comment by txsoftwaredev | Hacker News Reader

How are they exploited? Is amazon the only company they are able to work at?

Go work there and then tell me they're not exploited.

Edit: This was flippant because I was annoyed. There are a lot of people who work in well-paying jobs and have never really experienced what the labor that enables their relatively privileged lifestyle actually feels like. They often weigh in with "well, get a better job" but not only is that not an option for everyone, it means you're devaluing absolutely critical work. The snobbery among people who fail to see that is aggravating.

I've worked painting dorm rooms. Worked cleaning out freezers in an ice cream factory. I've done plenty of crappy manual jobs. But I knew that's what I would get at the time as I was uneducated and unskilled. I was happy to have an income that relied on not needing any skills. Sorry you are annoyed, it's my opinion.

"I've had crappy manual jobs" and "I've been in a situation where crappy manual jobs were my only viable option" are very different situations. But also, why didn't you want more money at the time? Why were you so happy to have a crappy job cleaning out freezers when you could have organized and got a better paying job cleaning out freezers?

This future millionaire mindset, where you were "happy to have an income" because you anticipated better future returns, is ugly and detrimental to everyone around you. Every job that needs doing should be done for decent pay and with dignity, at a minimum.

> "I've had crappy manual jobs" and "I've been in a situation where crappy manual jobs were my only viable option" are very different situations.

?? Why would anyone work a crappy manual job if it weren't their only viable option?

Like, I'm sure there are exceptions but it seems unusual, since if you have better options, you'll pursue those instead.

I'm thinking of the student who needs a part time job here.

I grew up relatively poor in Arkansas. I dropped out of college (thankfully fully paid for by scholarships for music) after a few weeks. I was pretty useless in my late teens and early 20s and "earned" the low paying jobs I had. I finally got my act together, started working help desk / IT support jobs. Then I learned enough to get a job doing web development for low pay. I continued to show my value to employers and my salary reflected it after time. No one deserves more money because they don't like their job.

I did unskilled labor for 10 years of my life, 5 years of it in a factory where a typical job involved lifting 50 and 100 pound loads repetitively the entire day. It started at maybe 20 cents over minimum wage as a temp and went up a few dollars above that by the time I left.

First of all, comparatively Amazon warehouse work doesn't sound like "terrible working conditions", it sounds like a dream job, and it sounds like you have never really experienced typical manual labor if you describe it that way.

Second of all, was I exploited? What would that matter? Every other choice I had was worse or I would have taken one of them. Should the company have improved the working conditions? They did! They automated everything. All of the unskilled jobs are gone and the jobs that remain are higher paying mechanic or process operator jobs. Today I would have to take one of the worse choices.

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