04/13/2026
In light of the resurgence of discourse around what constitutes a “real job” and who deserves a living wage, we would like to remind you that a job’s moral weight and its perceived respectability are two different things. Just because it pays your bills better than flipping burgers or scrubbing toilets doesn’t automatically give you any moral high ground over people taking harder, less well regarded jobs.
We understand that there are jobs people take out of desperation. Poverty is a coercive force, and propaganda is strong. But doing harm to your neighbor to line your own pockets still makes a negative impact on your community. If you choose a job in a property management company, then every time you fill out the eviction paperwork to turn a poor person into a homeless person so that a rich person can get richer, you have unhoused your neighbor for a paycheck. If you choose a job where you have to swear to enforce all the laws, knowing that unjust laws exist, you’re responsible for every injustice you carry out. If you accept a job that will require you to take a life, you’re the one who spills that blood. If you accept a job that will require you to put children in cages, you’re the one caging children. So let’s not pretend that the perceived legitimacy or status of a job has any bearing on people’s moral right to be fed and housed and to live their lives in peace.
