Shopping Can Be Labor: A Reply to Nicholas Vrousalis

Abstract Nicholas Vrousalis recognizes that shopping can help train recommendation systems, but denies that shoppers thereby perform labor. An engineer clicks to train a system, whereas a shopper clicks to buy socks. He also considers the labor account redundant because its protections can be justified without classifying shopping as labor. I defend the classification and its usefulness. Organized shopping can reasonably count as labor, and labor institutions offer a developed model for securing fair contracts through collective bargaining. A counterintuitive conclusion deserves scrutiny, although its counterintuitiveness alone cannot settle whether the proposed revision is justified.