What is the most anachronistic [something that belongs to an earlier time] job in America today?

Shoveling ho0rse shit, I do that every day. haha

Septic tank cleaner?
Trash collector?

Prison labor rented out to for-profit companies. It’s slavery.

Whole Foods gets cheese from a Colorado company that pays prisoners 60 cents per day.

Working in a slaughter house.

executioner

I remember once reading that cutting down trees is one of the top three most dangerous jobs. I’m not sure what it is called? I think it’s called being a logger.

The term is “lumberjack”.

I have heard that slaughterhouses and logging are still tremendously hazardous and unpleasant jobs, despite safety and equipment improvements.

Sometimes a Great Notion

@ibstubro Indeed they are

Here is an article about the loggers. I’m bothered they don’t make more money for the hazardous work they do.

At least that article shows that huge improvements have been made in recent years, @JLeslie. More than I, personally, had dreamed of.

Ocean Fishing has gotten mechanized, but it is still hard work and dirty dangerous conditions.

Chicken sexer is gross. Watch any episode of Mike Rowe’s Dirty Jobs and you will find lots of jobs that still must be done.

Blacksmith is pretty anachronistic. There is a blacksmith in downtown San Francisco.

Yes, ocean fishing is another good example of hard, gross work, @zenvelo. I know a young man that travels the US shoeing horses, and he loves the work.

Still, most of the jobs listed allow a degree of independence that would appeal to a certain type of individual. ‘Working for the man’ surrounded by dead animal flesh or being stuffed an a black hole in the ground are still topping my personal list.

Sounds accurately similar to my major-civil engineering..

preacher

Farrier (a person who shoes horses)

Milk man. Ice man.

Farrier reminded me of blacksmiths. They are both still around, but in much smaller numbers. Blacksmithing is becoming a lost art. Last summer we saw an iron demonstration and it was incredible, and the items last forever.

Blacksmith, horse shoes, farrier, blacksmith. Full circle!

Our local milkman finally cashed it in, @talljasperman, and I’ve never seen an ice man cometh. Ice cream maybe.

Watchmaker

Typist

@talljasperman Sometimes I thought typist can be a little fun

Odd that the legal system still uses a manual court reporter in the US, @talljasperman, similar to a typist.
Why isn’t digital copy used?

I have an accordion. Does that count?

The market for accordions seems fairly robust, @Yetanotheruser. Sorry.

How about a cobbler? Almost everyone buys disposable shoes these days.

Seems to me that cobblers mainly work on boots these days, @keobooks. A lot of cowboy boots are still handcrafted and repairable.
In my lifetime boots are the only footwear I remember having fixed. When I was a kid I wore harness boots, and the boots themselves were good for a heel or three and maybe a sole.

Ok this time I really did find a good one. I deliberately looked up a job I knew was obsolete to see if anyone was still doing it.

Elevator Operators became completely obsolete once the floor buttons on elevators were invented. And yet, It seems that Senators in Washington need to have their buttons pushed for them still. Figures.

@keobooks It figures. Most politicians’ buttons are easily pushed!

I vaguely remember elevators having attendants, @keobooks, just as I vaguely remember senators believing themselves mere mortals.

I knew one building that had an elevator operator when I was very young. It was a really scary huge freight elevator. It looked like it could take a limb if you tried to operate it on your own.

I remember elevator attendants in Macy’s Herald Square in NYC.

Our local ‘Federal Building” (PO) had a tiny little elevator and the obligatory little black man to operate it. There was a joystick type control and zero automation…it was up to him to match the floor levels.

[Mod says] Moved to Social with OP’s permission.