A recent survey shows that the more left-leaning a voter is, the more he uses home delivery services, which—at the same time—he also condemns as ‘exploitative.’ It’s one of those apparent paradoxes that contemporary society is so good at. And what if, after all, there was nothing more logical coming from those who praise deregulated globalisation and the destruction of traditional European lifestyles?
The survey was carried out for the French weekly Le Point and sets out to establish a sketch of the most representative users of home delivery platforms such as UberEats or Deliveroo, to name but a few, which offer their services in Paris, Lyon, and Marseilles, as well as in other major European cities. The typical user profile would be that of a left-leaning student living in a metropolis. And among them, those who vote ‘very Left’ are the most likely to have trays of sushi or tandoori chicken delivered in bags, carried by immigrant workers on bikes or scooters.
The survey was carried out using the cluster method, which has been all the rage in France since the last presidential elections. The idea is to establish standard profiles based on a convergence of sociological and behavioural criteria. One of these profiles is described as ‘progressive,’ which, according to Le Point, brings together people who are “rather young, graduates, often working in the arts and entertainment. Pro-European, pro-reception of migrants, pro-adoption for homosexual couples, overwhelmingly against the death penalty, their votes go to the Left or the far Left.” This avatar customer represents only 5% of the French population, but it is among them that the use of meal delivery platforms has reached a record 46% (compared with 19% for the French on average).
The survey carried out by the Cluster17 institute did more than just analyse the eating habits of the respondents. It also asked about their social convictions, and this is where the paradox is most apparent. Of the ‘very left-wing’ people questioned, 63% agreed with the following statement: “The model of delivery companies with self-employed, unsalaried drivers is unsatisfactory because it drives down wages by relying mainly on low-skilled foreign workers.”
And yet it is precisely the same people—absolutely the same people—who are the most compulsive worshippers of salmon sashimi, gobbled up on the living room sofa. The ‘very left’ consumer votes for parties such as Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise, which in 2022 explained that it wanted to fight against the uberisation of the labour market in unambiguous terms. According to the programme of the left-wing candidate in the presidential elections, “Back-breaking work, poverty wages forcing you to pedal for a whole day to earn a minimum wage, a premium for risking your life, savage competition between platforms and between couriers.”
Denunciation yes, renunciation no. It would seem that the gastronomic apprentices of the far Left have some difficulty in reconciling their political opinions with their everyday lifestyle choices.
In truth, the paradox is clearly apparent. The business model of delivery platforms is based on the relentless use of very cheap labour supplied en masse by immigration from sub-Saharan Africa. The typical delivery drivers working for UberEats have only recently arrived in Europe. They are often illegal, which gives their employers access to a workforce that pays little attention to working conditions and is not yet aware of the full range of rights guaranteed by trade unions. Above all, they are very cheap.
How did it reach the pavements of our big cities? Thanks to a policy of open borders with no limits, which is precisely what UberEats customers are advocating, this is, in the end, very logical, if not coherent. You have to reap and enjoy the fruits of your labour. Once they’ve finished their meal, sushi eaters will campaign for the regularisation of the undocumented immigrants who allow them to fill their bellies without too much effort, just to add a little good conscience and social justice to their lives. Not only does the UberEats delivery man feed the far-left activist, he also justifies his political struggle. What more could you ask for?
The near-perfect symbiosis between the far-left voter and the food delivered is not limited to implicit support for the importation of slave labour. In the final analysis, we’re dealing with an entire system of life and values; we could almost talk about an ecosystem—or a food chain. The use of ready-prepared food delivered to the home seems obvious to an uprooted individual living alone outside any traditional family structure, for whom the preparation of a formal meal is akin to an extreme right-wing ritual. Especially if it’s a woman in the kitchen.
The model of the housewife cooking for her husband and children is consigned to the dustbin of history, and the witless bachelor enjoys a solitary poke bowl as a means of apparent liberation from the shackles of family. He can afford to do so because he lives alone on the comfortable salary guaranteed to him by the job-creating metropolis. It goes without saying that having a tray of sushi delivered several times a week when you’re a family with children is a sweet utopia.
In the early years of the Soviet Union, Communist leaders commissioned their architects to design a new type of flat with no kitchen or a minimalist shared kitchen. The aim was to free women from domestic servitude. In these constructivist dwellings, food bought downstairs could be heated but never cooked on the premises. Although they are not quite there yet, the big cities are getting closer to this configuration, with homes where the space for the kitchen has been drastically reduced in favour of the ‘living rooms,’ where the main piece of furniture is no longer a table but a combo of screen and sofa. Food arrives from outside, is already prepared, and is gobbled up without ceremony.
In short, the far-left consumer who defends the sushi delivery man castigates the social consequences of an order that he himself has helped to create and which he encourages with his revolutionary, globalist rhetoric. The tragedy is that it’s not clear that he actually wants to change anything about what is for him a ‘virtuous’ circle.
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/commentary/the-left-uber-eats-itself/