Premise
- Many digital services run on invisible labor: annotators, moderators, couriers, support staff.
- When labor is hidden, prices and product narratives mislead users and policymakers.
Systems view
- Externalized costs shift signals; cheap prices can rest on unpriced harms or precarious work.
- Feedback loops fail when workers lack voice or exit; quality degrades silently.
Social and political stakes
- Whose safety and dignity are traded off for convenience; how risk is shifted to workers with the least power.
- Global supply chains of attention and logistics; how they reshape local economies.
Remedies to explore
- Transparency, worker agency, and liability that surface true costs without imposing a single plan.
- Cooperative and federated models that keep plural preferences intact.
Expansion notes
- Use concrete stories (moderation shops, delivery zones, AI labeling hubs) to keep it tangible for beginners.