The American job market has become a "dildo in fleshlight" system, to use Slavoj Žižek's wonderful and applicable philosophical term.

Post made 17/7/26

Anyone who has briefly met me (or has scrolled this website, as a matter of fact) can gather that I am a highly ambitious person. Otherwise, I wouldn't be pursuing three Bachelor's degrees at once. I speak four languages, conservatively speaking. I have experience teaching, writing museum labels, annotating linguistic data, public speaking, researching, tutoring, coding, writing, working in kitchens, pool maintenance, groundswork, and title insurance. In food service alone, I have years upon years of experience.

With all of this being said, it should not be difficult for me to find a job that pays me well enough to live.

The only reason that we are not officially considered to be in a recession right now is because of the high-paying outliers. U.S. economic growth is reportedly growing and expanding, but this begs the question:

"Growing and expanding for whom??"

In June of 2026, employers created 57,000 jobs in the United States. In May, this number was 129,000. Whatever new jobs are being created, not only are they following a depressing downwards trend, but they are not reaching prospective employees. As Gen Z enters the workforce, we are finding that any opportunity to contribute meaningfully to society is denied to us. We very may well be the most educated generation in history; the rise of globalization and the dissolution of information has contributed to a very large amount of Gen Z to gain skills, degrees, and certificates that our forefathers were not able to obtain.

Entry-level jobs have successfully been eradicated in America. According to Resume.org, 21% of companies have stopped entry-level hiring and replaced the entry-level positions with AI. At the end of 2026, this number will likely increase to 36%, and by the end of 2027 to 47%. Hiring managers are becoming less likely to hire Gen Z, claiming that we are "lazy", "entitled", and that we have "poor work ethic". These stereotypes have existed regardless of generation, but what differs now is 1. the presence of AI, 2. companies valuing shareholders over their own workforce, and 3. we aren't willing to be slaves anymore.

AI and the Dildo in Fleshlight

So, hiring managers are turning their eyes towards automation and artificial intelligence. Any member of Gen Z could confidently tell you that. However, AI does not actually know ANYTHING. It is disingenuous to even refer to it as a form of intelligence. It is a language model. It mimicks human speech like a parrot. A parrot could whistle Darth Vader's theme and learn how to say "Luke, I am your father," but that does not mean it knows anything about Star Wars. If you had a question regarding Star Wars, you would probably be better off consulting your nerd friend, or a panelist at a sci-fi convention, or George Lucas himself.

AI is a parrot. Parrots know not what they say and therefore cannot be held responsible. You would not trust a parrot to hire, translate a legal document, or resolve a customer complaint.

Because AI hiring "staff" has made it impossible for any qualified applicant to receive a job offer, applicants are turning to AI to polish (and lie on) their resumes. And quite frankly, I don't blame many of them. Desperate times call for desperate measures. However, it reveals the sheer lack of human connection and knowledge involved in the hiring process, with all parties involved. I have seen a similar thing happen in the educational field; teachers, overwhelmed with the mass amounts of work given to them, resort to using AI in their lessons to keep up. Students, either out of the same problem or sheer laziness, are doing the same. This means that no one is teaching, no one is learning, and nothing is changing. It is a simulation of human interaction with no actual interaction involved, which I will refer to as "the dildo in fleshlight", a concept introduced by philosopher Slavoj Žižek.

In order to combat the "dildo and fleshlight" dilemma, prospective job seekers are forced to network to find genuine human interaction and potential employers that will hire them. Hiring staff no longer care about skill. What is important is knowing the right people. And very importantly, this system makes it so that the hierarchy is never broken. Qualified, lower-income applicants will never break into the spaces that unqualified, rich tech-bros frequent. In this case, the implementation of AI appears to be pushed systemically in order to maintain social and economic hierarchies, and not because Gen Z is "lazy" (which, I would like to add, many of my loved ones are working multiple jobs, have little time to see THEIR loved ones, slave away to jobs that do not care about them, and put their all into their careers. Gen Z is, I would argue, the MOST hardworking generation in recent American history).

Capitalism and the Lack of Value for Human Life

Anyone who knows anything about capitalism knows that it is a shift away from policies regarding community care and towards policies that value the individual over the collective. Capitalism permits the mass collection of wealth, but of course, one must question where the wealth is extracted from. It would be disingenuous to state that we are all living through a recession. The American economy is expanding and growing; as of the time of writing this post, the GDP has been increasing by about 2.1% according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

However, wages have not increased. Compared to decades ago, Americans show lower rates of union membership. This means that there are effectively fewer work protections and fewer organizations that can fight for labor rights. Corporations are legally bound to their shareholders, but they have lost sight of who else they are legally bound to. There is no longer a sense of legal representation for those creating economic growth. This allows corporations to expand without having workers' best interests in mind. Further protections for workers are needed regardless of industry.

The use of AI allows companies to generate wealth without giving it back to those who make up the workforce. Companies now have access to skill, but those who are skilled no longer have access to wealth. There are no protections for AI, and there are very few protections remaining for workers; in order to grow and appease shareholders willing to invest, companies pour all of their resources into profit, regardless of the fact that it comes at the cost of the well-being of millions of human lives.

We're tired.

Gen Z fights so hard for a better future because we are collectively tired of having the future that was promised to us ripped out of our hands. I am finishing up the second and third of my three degrees this fall, and despite how hard I've worked for so many years, potential employment feels incredibly unattainable. I currenly have about $300, including my savings. And I am well aware that no company is bound by law to employ me, but I am entitled to at least the ability to buy food. That is what the social contract is. The social contract states that, if you work hard and contribute meaningfully to society, you will be taken care of by your community, by the state, by whomever you give yourself to. There is no social contract anymore. To say that the government, these corporations, your local coalition of politicians, and similar organizations owe you nothing is simply a falsehood. We are all bound to each other as human beings. We have responsibilities to each other, and we have failed each other.

I previously thought that my goal to obtain six degrees was too ambitious. Now I realize that it is necessary. However, it seems like I no longer have a means of getting there. Before I went to college, I had every Boomer telling me how well off I would be, how I could work for the state and be taken care of forever. I would tell them that I speak Spanish and they made it seem like I had nothing but open doors in front of me. Now, four years later, I speak two more languages and I've only gained more and more skills, and I feel worse off. And how many other young people feel just as I do? How many others have ended up destitute because our forefathers have failed us? How many more people smarter than myself exist, and are they all also going to be stuck in minimum wage jobs? We cannot champion behind the face of progress when we are fighting against those who are trying to reach for the stars? For the first time in a very, very long time, I feel hopeless. There are a group of others out there just like myself. who wish to contribute meaningfully to the world; we want to research, we want to publish, we want to network, we want to teach, we want to learn, we want to create, we want to lead, we want to lead talks, we want to be the force that moves the world forward. But I will not do so if the world that I contribute to turns against me.

I will not be the mechanic of a broken machine.

M.A.F.C., July 17th, 2026.

If you would like to support my work and well-being while I'm looking for financial independence and stability, my Cashapp account is $tuesdaymorning10am. Either way, I appreciate the time you took to read.