Redditor ThurnisHailey wanted to discuss the careers that leave little to help the world, so they asked:
"What high-paying jobs contribute very little to society/humanity?"
Anti-Robinhood
Real Estate Realtor GIF by South ParkGiphy"My sister makes a lot of money in real estate. She helps rich people get even richer."
Ieatalot2004
"To be fair, most jobs are helping rich people get richer."
nBrainwashed
Useless
"As a marketing manager, I can tell you I have one of the most useless jobs in the world."
erose994
"What do you actually do as a marketing manager? I'm just curious."
bertolintus
"Mostly wrangle the opinions of 8,000 people who all think a project should be executed differently and all feel like it needs to be done yesterday. And pass that project through a complicated and overly bureaucratic system of approvals until it inevitably stalls out in a VP's inbox, and you have to send them 3 reminder emails just to get it done."
"Other than that... Talking to agencies (at least where I work, we outsource our graphic design, social media, and advertising work to third parties), building annual strategies, planning social media and email content, and occasionally getting to do something fun like writing a blog post."
"Oh, and managing budgets. But it's budgeting season right now so that's a touchy subject."
erose994
Data Collection
"Some of the best-paid people are figuring out how to collect as much data about you as possible to show you the best adverts. Or how to shave off milliseconds off a trading decision and build better arbitrage strategies to buy and sell the same thing millions of times."
Weak_Commercial_7124
The Middle
"IT middle management. I always thought they did nothing, then I was promoted to one and now I can actually confirm it."
"Do nothing, contribute nothing. Worthless."
RedditWhileImWorking
"I honestly think middle management is all about what you make it. If you're motivated and WANT to make things happen for the better, I think you generally can, but it's also very easy as a middle manager to just maintain the status quo and literally do nothing but collect a paycheck."
TinaBelchersBF
Complicated
people love GIFGiphy"Hospital administration. Obviously, hospitals are important and are complicated systems that need proper management, but any doctor, nurse, etc. can tell you that hospital admins aren't exactly looking out for your health and safety."
dancingbanana123
It's sad to learn hospitals are a scam. Tragic.
Office Time
Staring Episode 2 GIF by The OfficeGiphy"Administrators who spend a lot of time inside an office in calls or meetings but have very little to do with the hands-on work that actually advances stuff."
Ukhupa
Dirt
"I'm using a burner account. I'm a political strategy advisor which is code for opposition researcher. I work for a federal government party in my country. I research for gossip or dirt on our political opponents and feed stories to the media to disparage them and have us win elections. I feel all I do is make people more disenchanted with politics."
Clean-Elephant9363
Moochers
"During the pandemic, didn't you notice that the 'essential workers' were often paid minimum wage? Seems like the important jobs that actually keep everything running are not being paid much at all, most of the time. All the value of their labor is being sucked out of them by the wealthy moochers who just happen to own the company but never do any work."
Pipboypipboycheerio
Liars
dominic cooper preacher GIF by Amazon Prime Video UKGiphy"Megachurch preachers are evil AF."
MpVpRb
"The fleecing of gullible sheep is a story as old as humanity."
wittie2
Well, people certainly had some feeling about these career paths. What do you think? Do you have anything to add?
I learned I drink too much. It's a start.
Time Flies...
Loop Time GIF by PsyklonGiphy"2 weeks can turn into 2 years real quick lol."
radar_ryan
Changes
"The trajectory of your entire life can change in an instant."
MirandaDaPanda
"This. I was a dedicated museum worker just finishing my degree in museology. The pandemic made that all museums had to be temporarily closed, and then closed for even longer and I had to get a new job."
"Now I work for a tech startup and I LOVE it and even got a permanent position. Never thought I would become an office rat, but my team and company and the salary are just awesome. If you told me that before the pandemic I would have just laughed in disbelief."
Tove279
What Matters
"Who are my real friends. That socializing does actually somewhat matter and that grades/career aren't everything."
eliwman
"I 100% lost some people I thought were really close friends during lock down, they just never put the effort in and I finally saw that."
LadyPandy
Just Me
"I really, really like hanging out by myself."
some-girl-online
"Totally opposite for me. I used to love my alone time, likely because I never got it. After 2 years alone with just myself and a cat I was going crazy. Now I've found a happy medium where I get 2-3 hours a day alone and the rest is full of friends / colleagues, and it is working out well. Some days I don't get alone time and a few extra hours on my own the next day makes up for it."
Saraniah
Just yuck
Over It Ugh GIF by ZEPETOGiphy"Life just sucks sometimes, that’s the way it is and there’s nothing you can really do about it and you just kinda have to accept it and keep going."
anonymous5534
Life sucks. That fact has never been clearer.
Shake Baby
Disco GIFGiphy"Dancing like an idiot to disco in my house is my favorite form of exercise."
chemical_sunset
Bad Grind
"That the 9-5 grind is absolutely freaking toxic as hell. The amount of free time working from home and cutting down on my travel time has given me. It's improved my relationships. Given me more time with my kid and fiancé. Less time spent outside of those 8 hours doing chores and errands. I recognize that this isn't possible for every career and I'm sorry if this doesn't apply to you. But that's why our society needs to change. People need more time to themselves."
Pot-Pilgrim
Happiness
"It taught me a lot. It taught me: I don't have to go to an office to work. I can have a deep relationship with my kids. I can re-shingle my garage. I can walk my dog during the day instead of staring at my office wall. I can sell my second car and save on gas and insurance. I can be happy and fulfilled."
feral_philosopher
Together
"It taught me that I love my partner and we work together well in difficult times. We started an illegal take out food business to make ends meet, we started cooking at 8 am and had all the food in containers and ready to go at 6pm for about 20 people per night."
"I am a furniture maker who lost access to my woodshop with so many people testing positive. My girlfriend is a PhD student who couldn’t go to school and get paid for TA hours. We both had never worked in the food industry. We decided to isolate together and made a ridiculously successful business. A year later we got married, because we kicked the crap out of lockdown."
ThinkIGotHacked
Noises Off
"That when the time comes the rich and politicians will throw us under the bus and then complain about the noise it makes."
SeleneTheNewMoon
What a time it was. What a time it still is. Good luck all.
We can't get rid of everything different people have strong aversions to, but there are some things that should cease to exist from our world.
Curious to hear the things strangers online would say good riddance to, Redditor Sp3csLM asked:
"The world would be 100x better without this, what is it?"
Physical and emotional pain were at the top of the list for many Redditors.
We'll Pass
"Kidney stones."
– Callous02
"I recently passed a 10mm kidney stone. It took three months. The doctor wanted to analyze it, but I wanted to keep it. It is currently the centerpiece to my zen garden."
– Flaky_Finding_3902
That Nagging Ache
"Lower back pain."
– Detriumph
"I learned a trick to get rid of most of my lower back pain. This strengthens butt muscles and literally takes 1 minute. Lie your back flat on the ground with your knees up. Now use your legs to push your lower back off the ground. Stay in this position for a second or two, go back down, repeat for a minute. Ta-da, no back pain. You’re welcome"
– ArmageddonUnleashed
Cognitive Degeneration
"Dementia"
"Right now I'm watching this f'king disease rip my 80 year old father apart."
"I'm certain there are worse things, but in my world......"
"F''K DEMENTIA!!!"
– thebigdawg7777777
Inconsolable Despair
"Depression."
– Livefast_eatTrash99
"It might sound a bit harsh. I’ve been depressed since I was a teen. I’d still say, that short depressions can (can) be eye-opening in the sense that they make you self reflect in a way you’ve never done before, and you grow through that. You learn more about yourself and rule out problems (and/or people) from your life and helps u get ahead. What should not exist is chronic depression, that lasts for 2,3...5years....life... because it just ruins your life at this point."
– IcyInspection4791
There are things that can negatively affect us that we can do without.
Airborne Nightmare
"Those large flying cockroaches."
– dicatae
Trashing The Place
"Litter.'
– Rikkrishub
"At my work the minute someone takes the time to clean the parking lot of litter, 500 people have already thrown their fast food bags/gas station snack trash/home trash all over the ground."
– Straight_Ace
Environmental Harm
"Pollution."
– macaronsforeveryone
"Yes, the effects of pollution are causing more harm right now, than the corrupt leaders who aren't doing anything. If we got rid of the corruption, then you'd still have to clean the pollution. If we get rid of the pollution the world stabilizes enough for us without all the natural disasters that are causing mayhem on swaths of people."
– LongShaynx
Not everything objectionable is visibly detectable.
That's A Fact
"Lying politicians."
– mamarooo28
"A honest polician could have a hard time facing a lying one. People are more emotional than factual. That is why public scrutiny is important."
– Ogemiburayagelecek
Dishonest People
"Just liars in general. Cannot believe how far I had to scroll to see this. I think lies are literally tearing America apart."
– rubensinclair
These abhorrent things should have been long gone.
People Give This The Middle Finger
"Cancer."
– cashmerered
"Just went into complete remission last year ✊🏼f'k cancer!"
– justsomematter
Poverty
"I asked my friends this thought experiment."
"You can magically solve all poverty, homelessness, and hunger. In exchange, you have to become the poorest person on earth, even though NOTHING about the trajectory of your life will change. You'll have the same opportunities, experiences, and possessions to look forward to regardless of your choice - just everybody else will have more and better than you. No monkey's paw consequences either; people, animals, and the environment won't be harmed by this magic solution. Would you do it?"
– trialbytrailer
I often think we would be better off living in a world without weapons of mass destruction.
If there are conflicting people or organizations on the verge of causing violence to make a point, there's nothing a good old fashioned pillow fight can't resolve.
But that's just me.
They will just feign ignorance or pretend certain events never happened.
But here on Reddit, where participants are under the veil of anonymity, strangers spoke freely about the things in their country's history that left them feeling a deep lack of pride.
Redditor CloudsExpert asked:
"What are the 'we don't talk about these things' history of your country?"
European countries are rich in history–but not everyone recognizes these regretful events.
Romanian Peasant Uprisings
"In Romania we don't talk about the pre WW1 and interwar peasant uprisings that have been violently put down. Everybody gives the image of a perfect Romanian state and society in this time, but many forget that in our Independence War we had more frontline deaths from diseases that should've been relatively easy for us to treat at that time than from enemy gunfire. Not the mention the 1907 peasant uprisings."
"Also the Second World War and the politics in our country at the time."
– El_scauno
Romanian Holocaust.
"Romanian people deny that we had mass murders during WW2, that Jewish and Gipsy were killed and that we sent lot of them in concentration camps, like Auschwitz."
– Wooden-King-7949
A "Neutral" Country's Child Slavery History
"Switzerland: We don't talk about 'Verdingkinder!' it's basically child slavery as recently as 1960! You cant imagine the horror of poor people's children being sold to farmers for fieldwork, getting abused in the richest country in the world! Yeah, we don't talk about that!"
– Fripser ·
Sweden And Eugenics
"People in Sweden get really uncomfortable when you point out that we, as a country, were really into eugenics. The Race Biological Institution was founded in 1922, supported by every political party and the king at the time. It existed until 1958 and, as you might expect, did some really f**ked up things."
– PanickingTastefully
The South American war–also known as the War of the Triple Alliance, which lasted from 1864 to 1870–is not a topic that is frequently brought up by Brazilians.
So Much Bloodshed
"Brazil DESTROYED Paraguay, killing almost every man and a lot of its women and children. It was a proper massacre."
– heitorrsa
Another Member Of The Alliance
"Argentina was involved, too. Paraguay ended up with a 7:1 women-to-men ratio. But it's taught openly in Argentina, as far as I can tell."
– Tinchotesk
An American's Perspective
"American who lived in Paraguay for a couple months here! The truly, truly disturbing thing is that many Paraguayans don't really know this either..."
"I had read up about the Triple Alliance War (la guerra de la triple alliance) before I went to Paraguay for the summer, and knew historians considered it a bloodbath, mostly caused by (f'k him) Francisco Solano Lopez, dictator of Paraguay. He did in fact order that they start sending male children into battle near the end when they were losing. He was a f'king idiot. F'k that guy."
"So imagine my surprise when I got to Paraguay and TONS of stuff was named after him. I asked my host dad about it and he said it was because he 'won Paraguay the war'. He called him a hero. I was pretty horrified."
"Fwiw, I checked with the local high school principal to see how far this miseducation rose and he said Paraguay was 'annihilated' in that war, so at least the true history isn't completely buried. Fascinating, terrible war."
– toast_is_ghost
Are these topics relating to the following Commonwealth Nations taught in their classrooms?
South African Natives
"Here in South Africa the true native people, the Khoikhoi, are the most politically and economically disadvantaged people and NO ONE gives a sh*t. Not locally, not internationally."
"When the remains of Saartjie Baartman, a Khoikhoi woman (read her story, it's pretty awful), were returned to South Africa not only were Khoikhoi people not invited to her burial, they were actively kept out."
– Wahooney
A Shameful Legislation
"New Zealand very nearly had legal eugenics. In 1928 a bill nearly passed parliament that forced sterilisation for 'the mentally defective' and the Ministry of Education was required by law to give names of 'defective' children to the Ministry of Health. A separate part of the law said that such people weren't allowed to get married."
"The Opposition lobbied for these sections to be cut out, not because Eugenics was immoral and insane, but because there was no evidence that it changed the gene pool in any way."
– LampWickGirl
Other shameful historic events were mentioned.
Croatia And Nazism
"In Croatia people don't like to talk too much about Croatia's involvement with Nazism because it was too recent, and because the Croatian nazis were never the majority of Croats but the few that there were, were given power by Hitler. Yet people still to this day go around saying Croatian nazi salutes and using Croatian nazi flags (the Croatian flag is a red and white checkered crest, the flag the nazis used started with a white checker instead of a red checker) and because of the recent Croatian war of independence - Croatian patriotism during the war somehow got mixed up with outdated Croatian nazism and now it's this weird thing nobody really wants to talk about and you got kids as young as 15 saying sh*t like 'Za dom spremni!' which is an old nazi salute."
– gabrielcro23699
Ignored Mexican Past
"we dont talk about la guerra cristera in mexico they dont teach it on school or talk about it on tv and media."
– supernword69
The Cristero
"The Cristero wars, the indigenous people who got sold as slaves during The Porfiriato, the attempt to invade Cuba by Santa Anna and mabye even the Massacre of the londiga de Guanajuato."
"Edit: I deleted a part where I said there was a law that allowed to deport anyone that didn't 'look Mexican', I was told about this a long time ago by a teacher I constantly trust but upon further research I couldn't find any information about the matter."
"I shall now apologize for this."
– MbMgOn
The White Terror
"The martial rule KMT placed on Taiwan when the escaped from China. This led to a period called 'White Terror', where hundreds of innocent people and bright college students were killed for not joining the party, including some who many thought could go on to win Nobel Prizes and do groundbreaking research."
– Numerous_Tune_1461
The Japanese In WWII
"I live in Japan for 3 years and have some Japanese friends. Everytime I asked them about WW2, they mostly did not know the atrocities that Japan did in WW2. They knew Japan was in the wrong side, but it seems the details were lost. It seems like there is a national effort to forget this history because it was 'shameful.'"
"Edit 1: A lot of you mentioned about the unit 731. I read it and it was awful beyond any reasonable standard human being. All of those horrible things happened to the civilians and pows were unfortunate and I couldn't imagine how bad their sufferings before dying."
"I was pretty much disgusted knowing that the inner circles of the unit 731 got pardoned by the US and lived their lifes until old-age for giving the US the result of their horrible experimentations. This thing should not have happened. Those people in charge must got the justice that they deserved for allowing and facilitating those kinds of horrible experimentations to other human being."
– laluzam
When I was a kid, I learned about the Japanese concentration camps from my great uncle.
I thought his story about him and his wife relocating to live in barracks located in Heart Mountain in Wyoming during World War II wasn't real.
Here's why. As a California student, I was never taught in my school district about President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066–which was drafted out of fear of espionage on American shores following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
This led to the cruel eviction of 120,000 innocent Americans of Japanese ancestry–including my great aunt and uncle– from their homes.
Countries have their shameful secrets. But until they can recognize and own mistakes from the past and make reparations, we are doomed to living in a perpetual cycle of fear and uncertainty.
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Fortunately for us, people came forward and admitted some of their country's faults when Redditor frodesu asked:
"What is your nation's biggest shame?"
When it comes to constructing something, these nations seemed to have an open-ended date.
Slow Progress
"In Romania, they took 11 years to make one km of a highway."
– deivid_theboi32
"I live in the states and we have a freeway in my city they’ve been working on since 2001. It’s only half done and expected to be completed in 2029."
– PomPomdog
Waiting To Worship
"We took over 1000 years for a church."
– Random_German_Name
"Trust me when I say that Germany taking a 1,000 years to build a church is the least of your shame."
– spillledmilk
The Stadium In Progress
"We have been working on a NATIONAL STADIUM for 25000 people since 1987. Every now and then, a politician will mention that it will be completed by the end of the year."
"Simply google 'Lithuanian national disgrace.'"
– LogicalPrinciple6
Political leaders get major scrutiny.
Australian Prime Minister's Past
"Our PM sh**ting his pants at a Mcdonalds"
– Jackwahbe
Philippino Dictator
"Ex-President Dictator who holds the Guinness World of Record for Greatest Robbery of Government son will probably win the next election."
– ZoeWeird28
The Klepto President
"Czech Republic: During a live broadcast in Chile, our previous president stole a ceremonial pen."
– BeautifulBreaksalt
"You should see the video. It’s genuinely hilarious. He gives this little nod like he’s so f'kin’ clever."
"Just don’t Google czech president. We have some embarrassing ones."
– orincoro
People brought up things about Ireland the denizens weren't very proud of.
How Unmarried Mothers Were Treated
"Ireland, the Treatment of unmarried mothers, they were put in church run institutions against their will and forced to work, their children were put up for adoption."
– torqers
Irish Psych Ward
"The Magdalene Laundries."
– FrostyGrotto
"Never heard of Magdalene Laundries until I read an article about how Sinead ‘O Connor spoke up about how she was sent there as a teen. She got a lot of shit when she tore up a picture of the pope on SNL in protest against their abuse. She was right though."
– xOogieBoogey30
People discuss the sad histories of these nations.
Cambodia
"My parents nationality... The Khmer Empire.."
"The Khmer Rouge really f'ked up the country. Cambodia went from being a pretty decent country to downright f'king poverty at one point. It's gotten better but most of the traditions and other practices are either forgotten or just rarely taught."
– vedrahh
Exploitation
"Our second monarch (Leopold II) used the Free Congo State as private property, enslaving, torturing, and killing 10 million Congolese people over the course of 25 years."
– WasternCandid
As outsiders, it's interesting to observe the specific aspects of a country we're unaware of.
The negative examples provided by the Redditors above showed there is always another side to a nation.
And while some nations have shameful history and governments that are perceived as worse than others, all countries have their imperfections.
It's in how much a nation is willing to make improvements for the good of the people that places them above the rest.
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