Wage Enshittification

A specific form of wage deterioration where compensation not only fails to keep pace with costs but actively degrades in quality, reliability, and purchasing power over time. Drawing on the broader concept of enshittification (the tendency of platforms and systems to become progressively worse for users once they're locked in), Wage Enshittification describes how employers gradually erode compensation while workers remain trapped by lack of alternatives. Benefits are cut, hours are reduced, base pay is frozen while inflation rises, overtime is eliminated, bonuses become impossible targets—each change small enough to not trigger resistance, cumulative enough to produce steady immiseration. The wage doesn't just stay low; it actively rots.

Wage Enshittification Example: "When she started, the job paid enough to live. Five years later, with 'cost-saving adjustments,' benefit cuts, and inflation, she made less in real terms than at the beginning—not stagnation, but Wage Enshittification, the active decay of compensation."

by Dumu The Void March 12, 2026

Job Enshittification

The progressive deterioration of job quality, conditions, and meaning over time, while workers remain trapped by lack of alternatives. Job enshittification describes how positions that once offered dignity, security, or satisfaction are systematically degraded—responsibilities increase while pay stagnates, autonomy is replaced by algorithmic management, benefits are stripped, schedules become unpredictable, the work itself becomes meaningless or actively harmful. Each change is small, framed as "necessary adjustment," but cumulatively transforms decent jobs into traps. The job doesn't just stay bad; it actively worsens, year by year, until workers find themselves in positions they would never have accepted at the start.

Job Enshittification Example: "When she took the job, it had purpose, autonomy, and respect. Ten years later, with relentless 'optimization,' micromanagement, and meaningless metrics, she barely recognized it—not burnout, but Job Enshittification, the active decay of work itself."

by Dumu The Void March 12, 2026

Intentional Enshittification

The deliberate degradation of wages, jobs, products, or services by those who control them, as a strategy for extracting maximum value from locked-in users or workers. Intentional enshittification occurs when platforms or employers consciously decide to make things worse because they can—because switching costs are high, because alternatives have been eliminated, because workers are trapped, because users are addicted. Each degradation is calculated: how much can we cut before they leave? How much can we extract before they break? The process is not accidental but engineered, not inevitable but chosen.

Intentional Enshittification Example: "The app could have maintained quality, but once workers depended on it for survival, they intentionally degraded pay and conditions—not market forces, but Intentional Enshittification, the deliberate poisoning of your own product because you own the only well."

by Dumu The Void March 12, 2026

Systemic Enshittification

The pervasive, structural tendency of systems under late capitalism to degrade over time, embedded in the normal functioning of markets, platforms, and institutions. Systemic enshittification describes how quality decay has become the default trajectory—not because anyone chooses it, but because the system rewards extraction over investment, short-term profit over long-term value, and monopoly power over competition. Under systemic enshittification, everything tends toward worse: jobs, products, services, cities, relationships, life itself. Not because anyone wills it, but because the system's logic inevitably produces degradation.

Systemic Enshittification Example: "Everything seemed to get worse every year—jobs paid less, products broke faster, services cut corners, cities became harder to afford—not conspiracy, but Systemic Enshittification, the default trajectory of a system optimized for extraction rather than flourishing."

by Dumu The Void March 12, 2026

Theory of Global Enshittification

The theory, popularized by internet observers, that describes the inevitable lifecycle of digital platforms and, increasingly, everything else: first they're good to users, then they abuse users to benefit business customers, then they abuse both to benefit shareholders, and finally they become a hollowed-out shell of their former selves, optimized for extraction rather than utility. The theory of global enshittification explains why every app you love eventually becomes unusable, why quality declines as soon as a company goes public, and why it feels like the whole world is slowly getting worse in specifically annoying ways. It's not paranoia; it's capitalism.

Example: "He watched his favorite social media platform implement its thirtieth enshittification update—more ads, less content, features nobody asked for—and realized the theory of global enshittification was playing out in real time. The app had been good, then useful, then tolerable, and now it was just a slot machine designed to extract his attention and sell it to the highest bidder. He didn't delete it. That's how enshittification wins."

by Dumu The Void February 15, 2026