Then you have done it. Though you learned the wrong lesson from it.
It can be uncomfortable, but it is good for you to be able to do it. It uses the same skills you need to start your own business, negotiate with a bank, or fire your own employees. It is just doing what is necessary to obtain the best personal benefit.
That pertains to people on the bottom of the ladder as well as the ones at the top. "Burger flippers" as much as you seem to hate them and their choice of profession (assuming they had any choice) are just exercising the same desire to better themselves.
OK so you want to abandon the micro level discussion. OK you say I'm too stupid to understand the macro truth that informs your righteous opinion. Fuck it, then.