Old Earth Businesses

Profit from another person's dependence

A courier is on the way with an order. The customer pays for convenience, the restaurant prepares the meal, and the platform organises the transaction. Each party performs necessary work. The problem begins when some receive the benefits while costs and risks are shifted onto those with the fewest opportunities to refuse.

An Old Earth business is a way of operating in which money becomes more important than the person doing the work, the customer's safety and the product's wider consequences. A convenient order may rely on poorly compensated effort. An inexpensive device may begin with a child's dangerous work. Another sale may result from barriers to repair. A popular platform may be exploited by criminals who profit from other people's trust.

Such practices do not become fair because of a modern app, politely worded terms or an advertisement about freedom. If a company exploits a lack of knowledge or a lack of safe alternatives, harm remains harm even when every activity has an elegant name.

A signed contract does not reveal everything about someone's actual ability to choose. A person afraid of losing their income may accept conditions they would reject in a secure situation. Responsibility for exploiting that dependence rests with the party exploiting it. The need to earn a living does not remove the right to fair treatment.

Food delivery companies

For the customer, delivery often begins with a few taps on a screen. For the courier, it means accepting an order, travelling to collect it, waiting for the meal to be prepared, picking it up and taking it to the specified address. There are also the costs of a vehicle, fuel or electricity, maintenance and necessary equipment. The price displayed in the app does not show all this work.

Assessing pay therefore requires looking at all the time devoted to making deliveries and the amount left after costs. A rate calculated using the estimated travel time for an order may look much better than the income for an actual hour spent working. The company should clearly explain which activities the payment covers and who bears the cost of delays.

These problems appear in documentation of platform work. In the 2023 UK Fairwork study, most of the platforms assessed did not demonstrate that they met basic standards of fair work. In June 2026 statements by the GMB union concerning one delivery platform, couriers reported pressure from fuel costs, waiting, errors in app offers, and difficulties involving blocked accounts and obtaining help.

In July of the same year, the union described a proposed increase in the pay floors within that programme. However, the payment arrangement described was based on the estimated travel time for an order. This method needs to be distinguished from a guarantee of income for a full hour of work, including other activities and downtime.

Conditions depend on the country, contract and particular employment model. Some models involve hourly pay, while others pay per task. In each case, transparent pay, access to an explanation and a meaningful appeal against a decision restricting access to work remain important.

If reporting an error leads to another automated reply while the account remains blocked, the consequences fall on a person who needs an income. The platform should be able to explain its decision and provide a way to review it. Technology alone does not justify leaving a working person without help.

Courier companies and disputes over pay

Similar questions arise in parcel delivery. The number of deliveries alone does not explain how much time and effort a route required. Preparing parcels, travelling, unsuccessful delivery attempts and handling problems all have real costs. The payment arrangement should make it possible to understand which tasks and expenses the offer covers.

In one UK pay dispute described by GMB in June 2026, more than six thousand couriers took part in a ballot. Almost 97 per cent of those voting rejected the offer. This result shows the scale of opposition among participants in that particular ballot, as reported by a union that was a party to the dispute.

Behind a dispute over rates lies the question of people's influence over their own working conditions. Does the company explain how pay is calculated? Does it agree changes with the people who will bear their consequences? Does the work provide an income that reflects the actual duties and costs?

Companies have different contracts and agreed forms of protection. Their quality also becomes apparent when conflict arises. Meaningful negotiations require information, representation for the people doing the work and respect for agreements. A company whose service depends on couriers' daily effort should treat their voice as part of responsible management.

Children in mineral supply chains

A finished phone, computer or battery reaches the shop in clean packaging. The raw material's journey may begin in very different conditions. In some places, children work in extraction, performing heavy and dangerous tasks instead of growing up safely and attending school.

The US Department of Labor's findings for 2024 identify hazardous child labour in cobalt and copper mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They also document forced mining of certain other minerals, including gold, tin and tantalum. These are specific cases concerning that country and those materials.

A 2016 Amnesty International film showed children working in cobalt mines there and traced the material's route to further buyers. More recent findings indicate that protecting children remains a necessary task. Heavy work in extraction puts health at risk, while earning responsibilities can take away time meant for learning and childhood.

A long chain of intermediaries makes it easier to distance the product from the person whose work began its creation. A company buying raw material may see an invoice, the next buyer a material's name, and the customer a finished device. In a responsible supply chain, the origin of the material and the conditions in which it was obtained must remain visible.

Responsibility covers the decisions of mineral traders, suppliers, manufacturers and public institutions within their spheres of influence. Each should respond to harm that is identified. An extensive purchasing chain should not allow profit from children's work without checking where the material comes from.

Protection also requires addressing the situation of families who depend on extraction for their livelihood. Safe sources of income, access to school and effective enforcement of child protection are needed. Simply moving the problem away from a supplier may leave a child without education or the means to live. Change should improve the child's actual situation.

Products become waste too soon

A small fault can end the life of an entire device. One component has worn out, but a replacement cannot be bought, diagnostics are unavailable, or the design makes replacement very difficult. The owner of something that still mostly works then faces a cost that pushes them towards another purchase.

In a 2021 report, the US Federal Trade Commission described barriers to repair: adhesives that make replacing components difficult, restrictions on access to parts and tools, and unavailable diagnostic information. Such decisions affect the ability to keep using a product even when its main components still work.

The duration of support also matters. When buying a device that depends on software, the customer should know how long it will be maintained and what happens when that period ends. When assessing the purchase price, the customer should also be able to assess future costs and limitations.

Material wear, barriers to repair, the end of support and deliberately programmed failure require separate examination. An unavailable part does not by itself prove that someone planned a failure precisely after the warranty expired. It is enough, however, to raise a concrete question: why has repairing something the customer owns been made so difficult?

A model that profits from unnecessary replacement shifts costs onto the user and the surrounding world. The customer pays again, further production uses materials and energy, and the existing device may become waste. The harm does not disappear because the next model has an attractive advertisement.

A product should serve for a long time, and repair should be a real possibility. Available parts, instructions, diagnostics and clear servicing terms make it possible to assess the durability of the offer. Profit from a sale does not justify restricting a product's usefulness simply to make the customer buy another one sooner.

Social media platforms and trade between people

Popular social media platforms can help people sell things they no longer need, buy used items and find local buyers. A marketplace, a space for buying and selling listings, has a simple purpose: to connect people who want to make an honest exchange.

Criminals exploit the same space to profit from fraud and take advantage of people. In a purchase scam, a listing is intended to secure payment even though the promised item never reaches the buyer. A platform that makes contact between people easier then also becomes a place to find victims.

A UK bank's data on reported purchase scams for 2025 indicated the major role of popular social media platforms in the origin of such scams. The victim bears a cost that extends beyond the money lost. They must spend time explaining what happened, seeking help and trying to recover a sense of safety.

The consequences also reach honest sellers. Someone previously scammed may fear another transaction and suspect dishonesty even in an ordinary listing. In this way, criminals destroy the trust that allows trade between people to work at all.

The perpetrator is to blame for the fraud. The platform operator has its own responsibility for how it protects the space it runs: detecting abuse, responding to reports and limiting perpetrators' ability to return. The service's popularity makes these tasks more significant because it provides access to an enormous number of users.

A March 2026 statement from one operator described tools against scams, the removal of harmful accounts and cooperation with other institutions. The quality of protection is also reflected in what happens after a specific report: whether a dangerous listing is investigated, whether the user receives help, and whether the same perpetrator can continue exploiting others.

A platform serves people when honest exchange remains possible and safe. If scammers exploit its reach, protecting users must be part of the service's basic operation. The convenience of posting a listing without an effective response to harm is not enough.

Fine words do not replace responsibility

Flexibility, innovation, convenience and cooperation can describe useful solutions. Their meaning depends on how a particular service works. Flexibility loses its value when a person bears the costs of downtime without clear payment rules. Customer convenience has a dark side when it relies on concealing another person's effort.

Calling a person a partner does not give them influence over the rate. Calling a product modern does not make it repairable. Calling a platform a community does not protect against fraud. Every promise should be backed by conditions and action.

Exploiting trust, financial pressure or a lack of knowledge is especially damaging because it involves ordinary needs: earning a living, obtaining a useful item and making safe contact with another person. These are precisely the needs that business should help meet.

A responsible assessment begins by asking who benefits and who bears the cost. It then requires checking whether the person exposed to harm can refuse, obtain an explanation and receive effective help. When a company improves its results at the expense of someone else's powerlessness, fine words about its mission do not remove that mechanism.

Responsibility and the conditions for change

These cases lead to concrete requirements. A delivery worker should understand how their work is paid and have a way to appeal against a decision that removes their income. A child should receive protection and the opportunity to learn. The owner of a device should have access to the repair it needs. Someone reporting fraud should have a clear route to help.

Companies can change these conditions through transparent contracts, negotiations, supplier checks, access to servicing and more effective protection for transactions. Public institutions should enforce the relevant obligations and respond to violations. Declarations need their outcomes checked, and identified harm needs to be remedied.

What an individual can do depends on their circumstances. A worker who needs an income should not be forced to lose their job as proof of opposition to abuse. Change also requires representation for working people, safe alternatives and protection during the transition.

Criticism of harmful practices should lead to breaking the mechanism that causes harm. Identifying the specific problem, preserving the necessary evidence, cooperating and requiring responsibility from those who influence decisions can help achieve this.

Positive models are explored in New Earth Businesses. Useful business activity can support people's livelihoods through a reliable service, a durable product and honest cooperation. Its success should mean a better life for the people who make it possible.