I hate the whole concept of references. I don’t want to ask a favor from someone in my past. I don’t want to keep contact info for former bosses or co-workers.

Our society is like:

Pull yourselves up by your bootstraps.

Have personal responsibility.

Your success or your failure is 100% due to your good or poor choices.

Employers: “By the way, you are going to need help from some strangers in your past in order to get a job with our company.”

Companies are constantly trying to figure out how to pay workers less. I would absolutely take less money if the hiring process didn’t have so much hoop-jumping. How has capitalism not figured that one out yet?