The viral DoorDash driver who delivered two bags of McDonald’s to President Donald Trump in the White House on 13 April is a Republican woman campaigning against a “tax on tips” in the US. Sharon Simmons from Fayetteville, Arkansas, a 58-year old grandmother of 10 grandchildren, has been working as a DoorDash driver since 2022 and has made over 14,000 deliveries over the last four years. The grandmother was supposed to look forward to her retirement and spend time with her grandchildren. However, she is making around 10 tedious deliveries per day on average to pay for the treatment of her husband, who is suffering from cancer. This story is not merely the story of Sharon Simmons, but the story of millions of working people in the US, where the capitalist system has pushed people like her to the margins of life. The sad story reveals many important points about failures of capitalist system.
Firstly, it reveals the commitment of working people like Sharon in the US and across the world. Working people are not only committed to their work but also to their families and relationships. Everyday morality defines working people even in worst capitalist conditions. People like Sharon did not choose to be a DoorDash driver in a gig economy where hire-and-fire is the norm in the name of flexibility.
Flexibility here is not a choice but a compulsion. The choice is between work and hunger, poverty, unemployment, and illness. Sharon is working to support the expensive cancer treatment of her husband. The privatisation and commercialisation of health systems, and the business of illness, have created conditions that deprive people like Sharon’s husband of life-saving cancer treatment. Insurance companies, pharmaceutical corporations, and private medical providers are the beneficiaries of all kinds of illness, whereas working people are denied the right to access public healthcare.
If the US can spend $16.5 billion by day 12th of an unwanted war on Iran, it can spend the same amount on public health. The US military budget is projected to reach $1.5 trillion in the 2027 fiscal year, which is an absolute waste of public money. This budget could be diverted to healthcare for the American people.
Health is a human right. The US preaches about human rights but does not follow them at home or abroad. Americans regularly die without access to healthcare, while American bombs kill people across the world. The production of crisis is a business strategy of American capitalism, where life is disposable as long as it produces profit.
Secondly, the “tax on tips” reveals the ruthless rent-seeking character of American capitalism. It has failed to deliver health, freedom, and choice to American citizens. Taxing tips reveal the regressive nature of the tax system, where ordinary people bear the burden while corporations enjoy significant tax benefits and exemptions. Delivery drivers like Sharon, who may be making around $50 in tips per day, are paying taxes, while corporations are rewarded with tax exemptions. Trump represents American corporate interests, even if he opposes a “tax on tips.” People pay taxes, yet US foreign policy spends that tax revenue not on public health, but on unwanted wars that further benefit American oil and defence corporations.
Finally, Sharon’s story reveals the anti-human character of capitalism, which is fundamentally against human health, happiness, freedom, and individual choice. Under capitalism, profit is the primary objective. Every human tragedy and every crisis becomes an opportunity to dominate people and restrict their freedom, ensuring the continued dominance of capitalism in everyday life. `The individualisation of life under capitalism produces alienation, which lies at the centre of the epidemic of mental health issues across the globe and is particularly rampant in the US. Mental illness can lead to physical illness, and vice versa. Capitalism and good health do not easily go together. Truly happy people, whether in their individual or collective terms, become difficult to sustain under such a system. Capitalism primarily promotes commodity consumption for profit. Sharon Simmons’s story is not just an American story, but a reminder of the broader capitalist epidemic affecting human civilisation.
It is difficult to pursue human happiness, freedom, and choice in life within a capitalist society. Sharon Simmons’ story is a reflection of working people across the world. The only alternative is to end capitalism in all its forms in order to reclaim human life, health, happiness and freedom.
The writer teaches at the London Metropolitan University.
