Are there any occupations you uniquely oppose the existence of?
I did retirement home training and used to think it was a sweet job. Then I got in the business and underestimated how demoralizing it was as they give you the easy elders in training while the others make you, or at least me, really think of the fact the job just amounts to an unkarmic freebie.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there's folks doing sane, evidence-based care in this area. But I've seen so much bullshit from practitioners, ranging from the grossly unethical to the blatantly dangerous, that I find them hard to trust about anything as a group.
Besides, we already have health professionals that can provide good, evidence-based care (issues like ego v. evidence/new findings to improve care notwithstanding - but there's crappy people in all fields) - we call them doctors and nurse practitioners. And we need more of those.
I'm not sure I do, but one thing I haven't seen mentioned here yet is consumer psychologists. I once read an argument that they could be improving people's mental health, instead they are working on manipulating people into buying more.
Currently work in biotech, and have worked in medtech; I have had to integrate systems with insurers (payors is the industry term). I know exactly how fucked it is on a statistical level.
They rarely know what they’re doing, are guessing 90% of the time, bandwagon anything they think will make them more money or notoriety, and get paid exorbitant amounts of money doing nearly nothing to actually earn it.
Chiropractors. It's pseudoscience. Maybe it's not the most unique opposition from me as I know some others dislike chiropractors, but I think it's backwards that medical aids or health insurance will literally pay for their client's appointments with these modern day charlatans, while denying payment of scientifically proven treatment options.
Gas-filler. There's a couple states in the US where you aren't allowed to pump your own gas, someone else has to do it for you, and you're expected to then tip them.
The job is essentially getting me to pay to be inconvenienced. I'd prefer to pay to let me pump my own gas.
Hear me out: Many circus performers are multi disciplined, or put on an incredible display of training and talent. The last big top I went to had a knife throwing couple who also did a fantastic roller skating routine, a few very talented clowns/jugglers, and a bike troupe in a ball of death. Just to name a few. These people have devoted days or years of their lives to their craft. Do you know how hard it is to ride a bicycle across a tight rope with someone on your shoulders?
The Human Cannonball? He got launched out of the cannon and did one flip before getting caught by the net. That's all he did that night, yet he came out and bowed with the rest of the performers like he was an equal contributor.
Any sanitation worker, sewage diver, drain block remover, in most of the third-world countries.
We need city drainages to be repaired, cleaned, maintained, and managed with draconian safety, extremely well-compensated, hazardpay up the wazoo workers comp and complete-healthcare all covered for life. So many workers are just abused for the lifeline work that keep a city's arteries from getting clogged and flowing smoothly.
I saw how Korean drain-workers do it with high-pressure water jets and incredible efficiency and knowhow talent of their vital job. I wish we didnt have the corruption that prevents this type of training, trained worker, worker pride in the essential labour that they do.
Same goes for recycling and reducing waste. We humans don't do nearly enough and the Top-20 major corporations that cause 80% of worldwide pollutants go unchecked and unpunished.
Guidance counselors. One of them tried to convince my parents that I was on drugs...in 4th grade. Turned out that I had an undiagnosed mental disorder.
If you’re saying that you uniquely oppose the existence of elder care as an occupation, then that is a very strange, and frankly worrisome example. Am I misinterpreting what you meant? Also, I don’t know what to make of “unkarmic freebie.”
Kudos to the people who actually adhered to the "unique" part of this. No, you're not unusual for hating money men. It's only a matter of time until someone posts "cops".
The entire entertainment industry is gross and depressing seen from anywhere close to the inside, but I'm not sure I'd really say I oppose it in concept.
The wording of this question has a very narrow permitted window for an answer, but I'll say fuck "influencers" anyway. Entire concept should be rolled back like 20 years. Disc jockeys and similar precursors weren't quite so prone to being narcissistic kiddie creepers that were famous for being famous.
I often feel the same working in mental health, especially with medically complex patients who have lost their own legal-medical decision making rights.
There's the obvious high stakes ethical debates like if someone has a gangrenous limb that will kill them should you force them to have it removed. But there's a lot more common / lower stakes examples I run into more often. Say someone has a dietary restriction that not following will likely cause great harm. Say they can't swallow effectively (more common than you think, especially with strokes). This person is demanding a burger. It's more likely than not that they will choke and die on that burger. Do you let them have the burger? You could argue that a sane person would obviously choose life over a burger but I might argue that American culture in particular makes the ability to consume burgersenjoy life more important than lengthening it (not entirely true, OP is probably one of the few people here who wouldn't be shocked what people put elders through in the name of extending life). In the end its a complex debate with a huge amount of individual nuance that I don't claim to have all the answers to.
I can tell you that I kinda wanna go work hospice where I don't even have to ask any of those questions and can just give them the fucking burger.
Possibly more than half of the existing jobs. Some of them because they are enslaving (well, anything done for money to survive is enslaving), but most of them because they are unnecessary. Without their existence, the world would be a more tolerable place.
ceos.
Secretaries.
Legal assistants.
Corporate lawyers.
Most of the jobs within the tech industry.
The lackeys (according to Graber).
Selling cell phones or cell phone plans. In general, any job where eloquence is needed to convince another person to do something.
ANY job within the real estate sector.
This one is due to personal ideas, but any job within a restaurant. Abolish restaurants.
Landlords (it is not a formal job per se, but since there are people who make a living from it, I add it. For each of them, only the guillotine awaits).
I thought you meant military occupations and I was so confused. Like asking what's the one military occupation you oppose (you aren't allowed to oppose any others)