No question, that's a bad job for low pay. But based on the experience of friends, I can also guess that your solidarity did nothing to fix that, and GTFO from

No question, that's a bad job for low pay. But based on the experience of friends, I can also guess that your solidarity did nothing to fix that, and GTFO from the military did. And no, becoming valuable doesn't undercut anything I said. It means you have other people willing to hire you. This is an economic problem, with real profits going down even as numbers go up thanks to inflation that got boosted by energy supply issues. There are issues from technical disruptions, e.g. the proverbial buggy whip makers. But these are more reason to understand what you do that gives value, not less. For example, if I were an artist, I'd be learning how to use Stable Diffusion, not hoping that I can continue to live on simple image commissions. The laws against collusion aren't going anywhere, but if you expect to do things that no longer have value for money, you're living on borrowed time even if the government mandates purchasing of your work.