The economy is getting stronger. Jobs are up, people are spending and on paper, everything looks great. This should be a time to strengthen the middle class, create stable jobs, and help small towns and rural communities thrive.
But corporate America has other plans. UPS and Amazon are showing exactly what greed looks like in a strong economy. They’re cutting tens of thousands of jobs, automating positions and closing facilities — all while shrugging as communities lose reliable service. They’re taking a strong economy and siphoning the benefits straight to the top, leaving workers and rural consumers holding the bag — and probably diving into a Scrooge McDuck-style vault of money.
UPS is planning 30,000 more layoffs on top of the 48,000 jobs already gone — even as the company posts billions in profit. And it’s not just layoffs: UPS is ignoring contractual promises to workers:
• Full-time job creation: The 2023 UPS‑Teamsters contract promised part-time workers the chance to fill at least 22,500 permanent full-time positions and to create an additional 7,500 new full-time jobs over the life of the agreement. UPS has failed to meet this schedule, leaving workers uncertain and understaffed.
• Jobs cut: Since 2022, UPS has eliminated over 48,000 positions globally, including seasonal, part-time and full-time roles. Another 30,000 layoffs are planned for 2026, hitting delivery drivers, sorters and administrative staff, disproportionately affecting smaller towns and rural areas that rely on UPS service.
This isn’t mismanagement. This is corporate strategy disguised as “efficiency,” or as UPS execs probably call it, “making humans optional while maximizing our yacht fund.”
Amazon didn’t just fire workers — it killed malls, small shops and mom-and-pop stores that rural communities relied on. Hardware stores, clothing shops, diners — gone, replaced by warehouses and websites that don’t care if your town survives. Now, after sucking the life out of these towns, Amazon is turning its back on the same people, cutting warehouse jobs, slowing rural deliveries and automating away the few positions that once supported families.
And these aren’t just packages of everyday items. Many deliveries are life-saving medications for seniors, crucial prescriptions that older Americans depend on to survive. Meanwhile, some executive in a glass tower is probably celebrating “efficiency gains” while a senior waits for her heart medication — because nothing says progress like a robot that can lift boxes but can’t save lives.
UPS and Amazon are slowing deliveries in rural areas to save money, leaving towns with worse service than ever. Families lose income, local businesses lose customers and entire communities feel the hit. And let’s not forget: some of the packages being delayed are life-saving medications that seniors rely on daily. These are real consequences, not spreadsheet numbers executives can shrug off.
UPS and Amazon love to talk about AI like it’s some magical genius running operations perfectly. The truth? AI is glitchy, unreliable and blind to reality — and executives are using it as an excuse to slash jobs.
At UPS, the ORION routing system was supposed to save miles, fuel and time. In reality, it often sends drivers on inefficient, confusing routes that add hours to the workday and ignore local knowledge. One driver called it a “glorified guess engine that punishes anyone who knows the area.”
Amazon’s warehouse AI and robotics frequently break down, leaving workers to scramble and fix mistakes. These systems don’t think, they don’t problem-solve — humans do. Yet executives point to AI as justification for layoffs, pretending the machines are running the business while real people pay the price.
And here’s the kicker: robots don’t spend money. Automation doesn’t shop online, grab lunch, fill gas tanks or support local economies. Cut human workers, and you’re cutting your own customer base — all while executives brag about efficiency. Humans make the economy run, and executives are acting like we’re optional.
Meanwhile, a robot might pack boxes flawlessly, but it won’t help Mrs. Jenkins get her insulin on time. Efficiency is great — unless you’re dead because the robot doesn’t care.
Yes, the economy is stronger than it’s been in years. But corporate greed is turning what could be a rising tide for the middle class into a wave that drowns workers, small towns, and rural communities. UPS and Amazon are laughing all the way to the bank while Main Street is left in the dust.
And let’s be clear: robots don’t eat, they don’t spend, they don’t care — but executives do, and they’re spending human livelihoods like Monopoly money. At some point, we have to ask: who’s running the economy, and who’s just treating people like widgets?
Until we call these companies out for what they are — profit-hungry, contract-breaking, community-crushing machines — the “strong economy” will mean nothing to the millions it leaves behind.
Jason Lias of Ford City writes on political and social issues affecting blue-collar Americans.