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Me Gam. Me Giant. Me not very smart but me need food. Me need to find job.

In my world Giants are a thing. And they need to eat too. In fact, they need way more food than most of us. Therefore, they need a job to make money and buy food.

First here are some specs on my Giants :

  • The Majority of males are about 4m50 (14'9'') in height, while females are smaller at 4m20 (13'9''). They weight approximatively 900kg (~2000 lbs).
  • They are stronger and bulkier than humans. A fit giant can lift about twice his weight.
  • They live up to about 60 years.
  • They need about 10 times more food than a regular human.
  • They are somewhat dumb. They find it hard to do complex maths, but they can still read and write.
  • They are somewhat rare. Their total population is about 5'000'000 in the whole world.
    • They appeared 10 years ago in Russia, most of them still live there.

I don't really know how much money they'd need to survive and at first glance, I can't seem to think they'd be able to survive in our current society.

So here are my questions:

If Giants were to take part in our modern society rather than living an isolated life: What job would they do? Would they be able to get by financially?

Erin Thursby
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Dastardly
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  • You mention they are found everywhere around the world. Are you asking about possible jobs everywhere? Or focused on a certain region, such as America, Africa, Asia, ...? – Secespitus Aug 10 '17 at 11:42
  • I agree, if with mecanism, brute force is much less important, making more a burden than a superpower, it would be different before industrial revolution, and therefore the society would be diferent – Kepotx Aug 10 '17 at 11:48
  • If they appear from nothing, do they know the culture of where they spawn ? – Kepotx Aug 10 '17 at 11:50
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    Are those giants actually dumb, or simply uneducated? Among humans IQ raises by ~15 points per generation, and it has nearly nothing to do with actual genetics. Advances in nutrition and education is responsible for that increase. Granted, this distinction is more about prospect for future generations of giants, but it does have an impact on present ones too. – M i ech Aug 10 '17 at 12:43
  • lifting twice your weight is not impressive at all, even moderately fit humans can do this easily. Maybe you should buff the giants a bit if you want their strength to be significant. – minseong Aug 10 '17 at 16:31
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    "Lifting twice the weight" is actually quite impressive, if we define lifting as lifting and holding, not simply getting the weight off the ground for a second or two. However, 900 kg for 450 cm height is no bulky at all. It would be scaled up 180 cm / 57.6 kg individual. – Alexander Aug 10 '17 at 18:04
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    @LéonDonnet-Monay What did they eat in the Tundras before they were discovered? – Dhara Aug 11 '17 at 08:15
  • @Dhara Mostly meat from their supplies, they also hunted whatever was around. – Dastardly Aug 11 '17 at 08:17
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    Is it possible for them to work in not-so-legal buinesses? A crime lord might highly value giants as muscle. – M.Herzkamp Aug 11 '17 at 12:56
  • @M.Herzkamp Definitely, I would still consider it a job (A illegal one but still a job) – Dastardly Aug 11 '17 at 13:03
  • Obviously, first a professional wrestler, then a beloved actor, and posthumously, a ubiquitous media icon. – Chris Sunami Aug 10 '17 at 17:03
  • What about working at a store to left things off the top shelves? – dalearn Aug 12 '17 at 13:46
  • The really key question is if ceiling height discrimination would become a recognized legal issue, and how it would be handled. Most indoor careers in most existing buildings would be precluded. And then there's the question of the floors... – Chris Stratton Aug 13 '17 at 23:58
  • Just a quick point: Such giants would weigh more than about 900kg and would eat more than 10x as much as a regular person. Take a strongman (the closest humans to your giants as they are big, strong and bulky), Thor Bjornsson is 6'9'' , weighs about 200kg and eats about 10,000 calories a day (4-5 times what a normal person does). You giants are over twice as tall and so twice as long and wide too, so should be 8x bigger, so would weigh closer to 2000kg. They would also eat closer to 100x what a regular person does opposed to just 10x as much. – Aka_aka_aka_ak Aug 14 '17 at 00:12

15 Answers15

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First of all, I'm going to assume the following about your giants' intelligence:

  1. They are literate, but lack the ability to use correct grammar and have a limited vocabulary.
  2. They cannot perform maths to a level above basic addition and times tables.
  3. Due to this they may be socially awkward with humans, or looked down upon for their apparent stupidity.

So, what jobs can we give them?

Let's go through some different areas:

Media

Writing, journalism, and presenting on TV are out of the question, however roles as actors would be available to them but only for specific roles as giants.

Shop working

Stacking shelves and working the checkout are viable options, since they require only simple interactions with people. We assume that shops have aisles and checkouts big enough for the giants to fit in, of course.

Serving at the counter in fast food restaurants would also be an option, however I doubt a giant would be a very good waiter, since that involves words and discussions about the food and drinks menus.

Emergency services

While health work is out of the question, giants may be useful for the fire services, or for riot control in the police department (especially if the rioters are other giants).

Transport

I don't think we'll be seeing any giant pilots, however some modes of transport are very simple to operate. A tram perhaps? If your giants can drive, they could serve as bus drivers and lorry drivers too.

Construction and similar industries

Probably the most obvious option. Giants could be handy in lifting stuff or operating machinery. Mining would be another big one for the giants, with their strength being handy for this kind of work.

Arts and textiles

Perhaps some of your giants are good painters, sculptors, or creators? Maybe some giants have skill in textiles or sewing? The clothes industry often includes repetitive tasks which can be learnt.

Food production and farming

While being a fully qualified chef might not be the most likely option, consider factories that mass produce foods. Some of these use workers since machinery cannot perform the tasks they want. The giants could make sandwiches, pack salads, pick fruits (no need for a cherry picker!), harvest grains, and do all sorts of jobs on the farm. Looking after sheep, cows, chickens, and other livestock does not necessarily require a degree.

Sports

While mixing giants with humans may lead to catastrophe, there could realistically be leagues in giant-sports. Their strength would be something amazing for people to witness and things like wrestling, boxing, and martial arts could be popular among giants. Also consider team sports and athletics. There may even be a Giant Olympics (or equivalent) and various world leagues available for professional sportsgiants.

Community service

Stupid giants could easily work at recycling centres, or as bin collectors. Cleaning the streets and public areas would be a simple job for them.

Teaching

No! I hear you say! A stupid giant could never be a teacher! But who is going to teach the giants? Would giant children go to the same schools as human children, or to giant schools? Would those schools have human or giant teachers? Perhaps the more intelligent (or less stupid) giants could aspire to teach the next generation.

So there you have it. There's a lot of jobs out there...

Are these jobs well-paid?

Well.... no.

Realistically, these giants would not make as much money as a more intelligent human. Due to them eating more, they would need to spend more on food. This is a bad combination. They are also very tall, making housing much larger for them and more expensive. They would also need bigger clothes, costing more money.

To be honest, I think that your giants would struggle to get by.

Aric
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    You could mention military, but I'm afraid that the outlook there isn't much better, because the army would need to establish a completely separate logistic system, uniforms, weapons, barracks, etc. for them - but their advantage in combat is pretty limited nowadays. Back in the middle ages, they would have been fierce enemies, but today... Probably just bigger targets. As bouncers, policemen, etc. they are probably possible, since these don't face military weapons most of the time. – Florian Schaetz Aug 10 '17 at 13:32
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    And transport... I highly doubt that many companies will buy busses/trams/etc. specifically equipped for really, really huge drivers, simply because there are not that many giants around, but many more humans, while the giants have not a single advantage as drivers over humans (perhaps their intellect makes them even less suited for that job). All in all, yes, the giants are pretty much f... in a bad situation. – Florian Schaetz Aug 10 '17 at 13:35
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    @FlorianSchaetz It's hard enough to find a car in today's real world if you are some 200 cm tall or taller, and such people actually exist in reasonable numbers. Something like a car that can accomodate a person 200 cm tall wouldn't be hugely unwieldy for a person of a more modern length, say 180 cm; but a vehicle that can accomodate an individual who is 450 cm tall certainly wouldn't be very comfortable to use for a person who is even as little as 200 cm tall. – user Aug 10 '17 at 13:41
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    struggling to get by is the least of it. the USDA food costs for a single male per week is 50. 10x that is 500 a week, or 2000 a month. A person living on minimum wage could not even afford the food they need to live. 7.50 * 160 = 1200

    https://www.cnpp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/usda_food_plans_cost_of_food/CostofFoodJul2014.pdf

     – Reed Aug 10 '17 at 13:53
  • @FlorianSchaetz I omitted any areas where I thought stupid giants could not work. The military requires a level of cunning and intelligence for every role, and so I left it out. Considering our main form of warfare in the modern day is projectile, big, slow, targets wielding guns would not be very useful against a human front line. – Aric Aug 10 '17 at 13:57
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    You are forgetting about touristic aspects. There are many touristic centers, where it is an attraction to do sight seeing in horse drawn carriage. Imagine the possibility to get shown around by a giant guide who is carrying you on his back! – M.Herzkamp Aug 10 '17 at 14:16
  • @FlorianSchaetz Also, the role of infantry is modern warfare is mostly doing counter-insurgency in urban environments. Carrying heavy weapons and not being smart enough to know when to not use them wouldn't be that helpful. Other branches than infantry also generally need more brains than brawls nowadays. – Philipp Aug 10 '17 at 14:50
  • @Philipp hello again xD – Aric Aug 10 '17 at 14:56
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    Construction will be very good, especially things like insulation and roofing where workers spend a long time on stilts or ladders. – John Aug 10 '17 at 15:03
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    @John and window cleaning! haha – Aric Aug 10 '17 at 15:04
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    "looked down* upon for their apparent stupidity*" - the irony is painful :-D – Rand al'Thor Aug 10 '17 at 16:39
  • @Randal'Thor I'm glad someone noticed it!! xD – Aric Aug 10 '17 at 16:40
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    There's another possible niche for giants in transportation: being the mode of transportation. Rickshaws are a thing in real life, so it's not too much of a stretch. – eyeballfrog Aug 10 '17 at 16:49
  • Giants as cops and civilian-equivalent security guards could be very effective, especially when partnered with a higher-ranking human officer. The deterrent value of a giant at the gate to a facility is considerable. – Monty Harder Aug 10 '17 at 17:26
  • @MontyHarder you are correct, however maybe not for high security due to the OP condemning them to be stupid. – Aric Aug 10 '17 at 17:27
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    @AricFowler That's why I said you want them under the command of a human. The big dumb guy is to scare the amateurs off. The real security to protect against the professional criminals is less obvious. Hidden cameras etc. And you can also order the big dumb guy to grab the person the smart guy figured out is up to no good, of course. – Monty Harder Aug 10 '17 at 17:31
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    There's five million of them. I see no reason why a great deal of the international community wouldn't be invested in giant welfare. – Ross Aug 10 '17 at 17:57
  • @Ross that's actually a great point – Aric Aug 10 '17 at 18:03
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    Media has need of a broad range of talents, not just air talent or technical. If they are capable of following instructions, there is no reason they cannot be camera people, and their size can be a benefit in some situations. Setting up and tearing down sets often requires strength and size, but not much else. – pojo-guy Aug 10 '17 at 18:15
  • They're literate but have sub-human capacity for language? How do those jive? – Azor Ahai -him- Aug 10 '17 at 18:48
  • @Azor-Ahai given the example at the start of the question, I'd say they were literate enough to communicate with people, would you not? – Aric Aug 10 '17 at 18:49
  • @AricFowler I took "literate" to mean "can read," but that seems unlikely if the extent of their language ability is as in the post. – Azor Ahai -him- Aug 10 '17 at 18:50
  • @Azor-Ahai I see what you mean – Aric Aug 10 '17 at 18:55
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    Agreed... except that sports can be incredible well paid depending on the sport & it's marketing – Dhara Aug 11 '17 at 09:38
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    I would expect these giants would be fantastic at demolition with some basic tools. They wouldn't be able to handle skyscrapers, but anything 1-2 (or perhaps even 3) stories tall could potentially be much more efficiently done with a few giants. – Dan Lyons Aug 11 '17 at 18:06
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    Definitely well-paid. Big machinery is unwieldy and unintuitive compared to doing the job manually. They would make construction many times more efficient. A backhoe for simple home diy jobs in the US costs 100-200 USD per day, but a giant could get the job done much faster, moving on to another job or two. That's at least $1,000 a week, pretty solid pay if you ask me. – Jaden Lorenc Aug 12 '17 at 19:30
  • Trains! Let them drive trains! http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20150508 – EthanB Aug 13 '17 at 02:08
  • as for the jobs being low-paid, well, I'm thinking the situation might be like unions. Unions can get a higher rate of pay because they have the power to cause trouble (more or less) if agreements are not honored. Giants don't need unions, they themselves are strong enough that if their employers don't treat them well, well, there's trouble. They won't read fine print, sure, but they probably would make agreements they think are fair and throw a tantrum if what they thought they agreed to is too far from what they get. – Megha Sep 29 '17 at 01:24
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From personal experience, there's at least one field where an extremely tall and strong human is uniquely qualified.

Warehouses

You've speculated 14 Foot tall (Let's just say 20-foot vertical reach) humans that can lift thousands of pounds. Basically, you're talking about human forklifts.

This guy is out of business

These giants could shift around pallets as a server would bus plates between tables. They'd arguably be better than forklifts because a giant needs no special training to use its own body, nor does it need an expensive service contract to keep it maintained.

But are they well paid?

Well.... Depends. You can find entry-level forklift operator openings anywhere between 12 and 25 per hour. Not exactly six figures, but a giant could be able to afford food if little else. That said, since the company is saving on the cost of maintaining forklifts the giants might be significantly better paid.

UIDAlexD
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    Just one detail: What is the maximum capacity of a forklift compared to a giant? The giant can lift two times his weight, but can he carry it around at a similar speed, etc.? Not to mention that forklifts and warehouses are often optimized for palettes, which leaves the question: Can giants also carry palettes of that weight easily or would they have problems there? It might be just possible that forklifts are better at that kind of stuff than giants. – Florian Schaetz Aug 10 '17 at 13:28
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    Give the giants a pair of forks with hand holds and you solve the palette loading problem. – Tmartin Aug 10 '17 at 14:37
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    You can also give them a handcart or wheelbarrow to push items around on rather than forcing them to carry it. – Michael Richardson Aug 10 '17 at 15:39
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    @FlorianSchaetz A typical forklift can carry about 2 tons if it doesn't have to go high, but the higher you go, the lower your capacity. A heavy duty 10 ton forklift will run you about 50k usd, and even then it only lifts that 2 or 3 feet off the ground. At 6 feet that drops to 5k and at 12 feet that drops to 2.5k So it would seem the giants are as good or better than 50k usd forklifts. But do we need 5 million forklifts? shrug maybe. – corsiKa Aug 10 '17 at 18:25
  • Nowadays fork lifts and warehouses are becoming more and more automated. Warehouses are predictable environments with standardized palled dimensions, so machines can do this, they work 24/7, are dirt cheap and don't make stupid mistakes. You would also probably still need a person to jot down in a handheld that cargo A moved to slot X. – Swier Aug 13 '17 at 17:26
  • @Swier: My uninformed impression is that the automation is going the other way: you no longer need to jot down anything, because slot X contains an RFID reader that can instantly detect the presence not just of cargo container A but of each individual boxed product in A! The computer can track the positions (and desired positions) of items so exactly that the need for any smarts might well be automated out of the forklift operator's job. Besides, I like Tmartin's image of a booming new market in giant-sized fork-handles. – Quuxplusone Aug 13 '17 at 20:50
  • @Quuxplusone whoops, I forgot a part of the comment there. I meant to say: If you would use giants instead of automation, you would probably still need a person to jot down in a handheld what happened. But yeah, RFIDs will fix that, though RFID generally isn't accurate enough to always detect every tag. – Swier Aug 13 '17 at 21:01
  • A warehouse is pretty thoroughly optimized for a forklift; a giant is likely to suffer knee and back problems as much as if more than a normal size human. Their physical capacity careers are more likely to be in places which are too varied for mechanized solutions. Though a few might be employed in warehouse stores to get individual items down from upper shelves on customer request - at least those are one of the few buildings they could readily work in, provided that a door had its height increased. – Chris Stratton Aug 13 '17 at 23:40
  • @Swier Seems to me that copying locations and pallet or box IDs doesn't require much in terms of intelligence. Note OP specified that these giants can "read and write". So if you're thinking a handheld electronic device to record the information, it might need to be larger to accomodate a giant's physiology, but that's perfectly doable (for a present-day real-world example, look at tablets vs smartphones; they're essentially the same thing, with the only major difference being size and possibly the inclusion of a cell phone transceiver). – user May 12 '18 at 13:18
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One information, that you omitted, is very crucial to their purpose. Are they omnivores or herbivores. Because you see, no one would keep mule or ox if they would need to eat meat (even from time to time). The price of food would not be equivalent to work they can do (we keep flesh eating humans around because they are capable of precision and thinking, from time to time).

Second thing is easy calculation. Giant weighting 900kg can lift twice his weight 1800kg. But they eat 10 times more than human. Who in turn can lift around 70kg. So 10 men can lift 700kg.

So we see that one giant can lift more than 20 men. So anywhere where physical labour is needed they would fit. Construction, industry, maybe some disasters strike force?

SZCZERZO KŁY
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  • 900kg giant can lift twice his weight, but humans can lift 70kgs --> seems to imply humans weigh only 35 kgs on average? – Dhara Aug 11 '17 at 08:13
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    It's only implied if you take as a rule that in this world everything can lift twice it's weight. Which is not suggested anywhere. OP state this is out world. – SZCZERZO KŁY Aug 11 '17 at 08:21
  • Not only can they lift more than 20 men, they can also lift things to a height humans would need equipment for. At 4m50 they can lift something to the second floor of a building, without the need of a forklift, crane or pulley. – Abigail Jun 28 '21 at 17:34
  • from time to time haha – Husam Chekfa Jul 20 '22 at 22:59
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Nursing assistants. Maybe full Nurses for the very smartest ones.

Their capacity to handle fully grown humans bearing the weight easily is the key qualification. Example activities:

  • Containing non-cooperative patients without hurting them.

  • Carrying the unconscious or those who otherwise can't move themselves, gently but swiftly.

Compares to how normal humans deal with toddlers.

Emilio M Bumachar
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  • Rebuilding all the health care facilities (for normal sized human patients) to have sufficiently high ceilings and doorways would probably eliminate the economic advantage. Likely they'd just build a high ceiling wing for giant patients, and indeed there would be some nursing or at least assistant and orderly roles there. – Chris Stratton Aug 13 '17 at 23:55
  • @Chris I agree that rebuilding would negate the gains, but new health care facilities are being built all the time. New standards would soon dominate. – Emilio M Bumachar Aug 21 '17 at 23:00
  • Unlikely, the economics of making buildings with 14 foot ceilings just don't work where it's not necessary - even if that's done on a grand entrance floor, it wouldn't be on the upper ones. This would only happen if it became a legal requirement, which if you look at the fact that there are people who have to duck under code-compliant doors today, is probably not going to happen. – Chris Stratton Aug 21 '17 at 23:24
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The giants eat 10 times a human. So 30,000 calories a day. The most efficient calories per dollar foods give 3,000-4,000 calories per dollar. So a giant can eat on $10 a day. They can afford to feed themselves on just about any job in an advanced country. Their best fit though would be manual labor in less advanced countries where they can cheaply replace expensive machines.

An alternative high end job? NASCAR pit crew.

http://efficiencyiseverything.com/calorie-per-dollar-list/

PCSgtL
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The "modern society" is considered advanced mainly due to the shift from manual and repetitive manual labour to more creative and demanding jobs usually requiring education.

Your giants could, in a way, symbolize problems of today's poor, uneducated class. In many countries, especially young democracies of the Central and Eastern Europe, the society polarizes into well-educated white-collar workers, who were the main benefitors of political changes and poor, conservative men, often unemployed or carrying out manual jobs. The second group often walks down the crime path, becoming violent hooligans or small-time bandits and robbers.

That's sadly your giants fate. They would end up as circus attraction, manual workers and bouncers. However, due to the small earnings in such jobs and their high food demand, most of them would start grouping up in organised crime, robbing and murdering wealthier people, possibly even with some humans leading them as "the brains".

Couple of years later and a sight of the giant would inevitably mean trouble. Some men could even start hunting them, possibly blaming the giants for all the problems they have. Without the support of the governments, they will be either be killed one by one or organize a closed society to defend themselves.

So in the end the only option for them as the group is to gather and create their own societies. Would you have much less of them globally, let's say 50 000, it would be possible for them to become some kind of symbol for the wealth and power, with rich people having them as bodyguards and private armies. But 5 million is a bit to much for that, so sadly, they would either gather up or go extinct.

Jakub Tustanowski
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  • I think this is more or less exactly what would happen to a large outlawed group without education or wealth, but I doubt the established crime organizers would let them form their own organization. One should maybe also mention alcoholism. – Raditz_35 Aug 10 '17 at 13:13
  • Without any knowledge shared by the question author, I did't want to assume any addictions, especially since I assume that getting drunk a giant who eats ten times as much as we do would also take ten times more alcohol. But it's possible. Especially in Russia :) – Jakub Tustanowski Aug 10 '17 at 13:20
  • Good take on the subject ! I will probably include some outlawed Giants in my story.

    Oh and about the alcohol part. Giants are pretty tolerent to alcohol. So it takes a lot to wear them down. But Sweet Russian Vodka is here for that.

     – Dastardly Aug 10 '17 at 14:14
  • They'd be pretty bad at crime as they stand out too much and can't fit into normal buildings. There would specialised manual tasks in the open that they would excel at such as batch recycling of heavy items- no way to do that efficiently do that at the moment. – user2617804 Aug 11 '17 at 07:32
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Military or police services.

I'm surprised no one mentioned this.

Take the 20mm cannon from an A-10 Warthog and fit it with a stock, trigger and backpack for the ammo belt.

Give them a shield, the 20mm and point them at the enemy. Maybe also give them an axe or pick so they can deal with nearby armored vehicles.

I suspect that many IEDs will simply make an armored giant mad.

ShadoCat
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  • we would all be speaking Russian shortly, with an army of 1 million+ giants at the service of the Kremlin. – Segfault Aug 10 '17 at 23:27
  • @Segfault, maybe. A large number of them moving at once would be highly visible. A MOAB or two would make for a bad day for the giant army. However, smaller countries with less resources could have problems. – ShadoCat Aug 11 '17 at 00:09
  • Yeah, but why wouldn't you just airdrop them onto the enemy? – Segfault Aug 11 '17 at 01:35
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    That cannon is 30mm and has a recoil force of almost 5 tons. Even the recoil of a 20mm aircraft cannon would be too much for such a giant to handle. He could maybe lift it and carry it, but not fire it. – vsz Aug 11 '17 at 06:10
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    Unfortunately, in an age with missiles, etc. a very big guy with a very big gun is just a walking target - with the disadvantage that even he is not nearly as well armored as a tank (which has an even bigger gun). So, giants might be valuable in low-tech conflicts, in poor countries, etc. but in a modern war, they probably would be slaughtered. Modern armies would probably not employ them (because they would require a completely new infrastructure), so they might be found in poor countries' armies, where much stuff is makeshift anyway. As bouncers they are great, in a modern war... dead. – Florian Schaetz Aug 11 '17 at 06:40
  • They'd be advantageous if they could buried up to their necks and burst out of ground- a mine that move around a bit that isn't highly restricted. – user2617804 Aug 11 '17 at 07:36
  • @FlorianSchaetz I would assume that the giants are significantly more manoeuvrable than a tank. Like, I get that tanks are manoeuvrable, but a giant could scale a vertical rock face with some climbing gear. – Jack Parkinson Aug 11 '17 at 12:32
  • @JackParkinson Personally, I would assume that the giants as good at climbing as elephants, but that would be contrary to the original assumptions ;-) Giants would simply not work that way, so we are here on fictional territory anyway, so we don't know if they can run extremely fast and climb easily or if they are normally slower and bad climbers... – Florian Schaetz Aug 11 '17 at 12:59
  • @FlorianSchaetz I assumed that they're just large, not very bright humans with incredible strength. Nothing in the question to suggest that they are clumsy or slow! – Jack Parkinson Aug 11 '17 at 14:30
  • The only place I'd rather have a giant on a modern battlefield would be urban warfare and only because they would be able to ignore the internal walls of most any structure. In the rear with the gear they'd be invaluable but not at the front. – Ash Aug 13 '17 at 10:22
  • @Ash, yes. And with buildings to use as soft cover to block line of site, they would work very well. They would also do well in wooded areas with little ground cover like California's redwood forest. However, I think that the former terrain would be a more likely scenario in the modern world. – ShadoCat Aug 15 '17 at 21:43
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Guinea pigs and slaves

What do we have here? On the one hand, not very intelligent and dangerous to the civilians barbarians. I'm pretty sure that, despite all the civil rights' activists' efforts, those giants won't get equal rights to humans for many decades. Not only that, but their movement in cities would be heavily regulated, if not outright outlawed. And considering that even human slavery still encompasses millions of people, those giants would be used as cheaper and more efficient labour with no hesitation (especially in Russia). They would be lucky just to get enough to eat, never mind seeing any money.

On the other hand, they clearly posses some "magic" in their bodies, that makes them not only survive, but invert the square-cubic law. That would make many biologists around the world very interested in dissecting and examining giants. Again, depending on a laboratory that captured a giant, they would be lucky to just survive and be fed.

Alice
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There's some wild terrain that I think a giant could walk in more easily than a human can: e.g. temperate forest, with space between trees but with undergrowth and fallen trees. That's hard for a human, hard for a wheeled or tracked vehicle (except by clearing paths), hard for a flying drone.

I think they should be employed as shepherds or game-wardens, for endangered (and seemingly dangerous) species in their natural habitat: rhinos, tigers, bears, gorillas, etc.

ChrisW
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On the question of replacing medium machinery (like forklifts), five giants would replace five humans and a never-breaking forklift, not five humans and five forklifts.

As you increase the size, the power you need to move, for example, grows by the cube of the size (due to increased volume and so weight). However, surface heat loss only grows by the square.

As such, giants would be much less adaptable in hot climates than normal humans (this works by reverse on cold climates though).

However, due to the higher increase in weight compared to the increase in surface, they would be better to work in high wind conditions. As such, I would propose the giants for work on oil rigs, oil derricks, sea-based oil-extraction platform, ships (in some roles)

As for machinery working in very bad conditions, I read an article about replacing equipment at mobile phone towers and using horses on the last mile (where even 4x4 pickup trucks couldn't go due to mud).

Also, you could use them as artillery men (loaders for heavy artillery or MLRS).

Calin Ceteras
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  • I have issues with that forklift math, six giants would replace two forklifts and the six (three per 'lift) shift workers who used them but I'm not sure what five has to do with anything. – Ash Aug 13 '17 at 10:32
  • Because a week has 168 hours, while a work week has only 40. Also, there is such thing as vacation time, legal days off and so on. On average, if you need a 24/7 workplace, you must have some 5 workers for it. – Calin Ceteras Aug 21 '17 at 11:35
  • I stand corrected, you did more math than I did. – Ash Aug 21 '17 at 12:55
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I'd say #1 would be media, I think that's been covered.

Second though I wouldn't go for military (Bigger isn't always better there) but I'd say bodyguard would be excellent. This should also pay pretty well.

Construction--they would be able to work much more quickly than quite a few more traditionally sized humans--especially once we came up with tools & procedures fitted to them. This could apply to any physical labor that needed speed and precision (Cranes would be comparatively slow)

Athlete--Unless we created (Racist?) laws against them how long until they absolutely dominated football teams? Basketball would become a joke. Pro Wrestling?

A Farmer that didn't need machinery... A Sea diver/salvager that could practically wade out to sea. A Reality show extra (Imagine what those guys looking for gold on that island could do with one)... A Sex worker (Yes, it would happen!)

Most of these would pay quite well I'd think.

Bill K
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    They might be useful for some type of bodyguard jobs, but even then not for many: Many locations where bodyguards - for example, expensive hotels - are used are simply not made for 4,5m people. They could not move around there freely, limiting their ability to do anything. Also, body-guarding today is much more than standing around and looking big, they could do that, but everything else requires brains. Also you would need special transportation, etc. - and having those big guys around will draw the attention of everyone around. So, bodyguard yes... But only outside as living shields. – Florian Schaetz Aug 11 '17 at 06:45
  • A stripper may be a more practical alternative than a sex worker. – Golden Cuy Aug 13 '17 at 10:30
  • I was thinking of webcam/stripper mostly. I believe they fall under the term sex worker but I could be wrong... That's what I intended though. – Bill K Aug 13 '17 at 18:34
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Any construction-related company worth their salt would have a giant or two on their payroll.

When I was a kid, one of my friends moved to a new place. His parents had a really heavy antique desk (1 by 2 meters, solid oak, with drawers and everything) on the second (third in US) floor of their old house that they wanted to move to the new house. (It came with the house when they moved in, they had no clue how it got there.)
This desk was way too heavy to get down the stairs. So they hired a crane to lift it off of the balcony, but the crane wasn't able to get to the back of the house because the ground was too soggy and uneven and it was too narrow for those big metal plates. They ended cutting out part of the roof and attic, some exterior wall and a window to lift the thing out.
A giant wouldn't have cared about uneven or soggy ground and just carried the desk from the balcony to the truck.

Another time I was doing helping lay a few pipes and build a wall for some volunteer work for school. Everything went fine until we hit a small rock that was right where a pipe needed to go, for some reason this small rock wouldn't budge. As we dug it out it turned out that this small rock was actually a small bump on a much larger boulder, with a lot of effort we could rock it a little, but there was no way we were going to lift it out without a crane. As hiring a crane was very expensive and time consuming, over the course of that day we removed all the pipes we'd laid the previous day, and the next day we laid all those pipes again.
A giant would have just lifted out the boulder and put it somewhere else. A giant would probably also have laid all those pipes in an hour in the first place.

Many companies specializing in construction, plumbing, moving, etc. often encounter problems that wouldn't be a problem at all if one person could just lift it into place.
Now they solve these problems by getting a crane to wherever their problem is, if it can even get there. If not, they have to get some hydraulic jack system up, they have to get people with special training. This takes days. A giant, being able to lift well over a tonne, can probably solve half of these problems within an hour. (The other half would be too heavy even for a giant, or be in too tight a space.)

If a giant is too stupid to figure out how to fix it on his own, just have his supervisor tell him what to do. Even the stupidest giant is smarter than a forklift or a crane. So just train someone else to be the giant's buddy, and you got yourself an all-terrain general purpose forklift/crane/power wrench/power hammer. Much like dogs that search for drugs, help in rescue, etc. have a handler.

To name some jobs where a giant could assist: Plumber, construction worker, search and rescue team, piano mover, mover, landscaper, carpenter, security, healthcare (lifting people), whelder, iron worker, luggage handler, car mechanic...

Swier
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    " (It came with the house when they moved in, they had no clue how it got there.)". It was built in place, and the wood worker brought it piece by piece. – Calin Ceteras Aug 21 '17 at 11:37
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"Ethnic" restaurants

Giants may not be smart enough to handle the business red tape, but they'd be smart enough to handle cooking and being waiters.

Giants probably have their own culture and cuisine. Even if they don't, they could take Russian cuisine and pass it off as Giant cuisine. Or someone could totally make something up - Chinese cuisine in western countries only has a vague connection with Chinese cuisine in Chinese countries, and "Mongolian BBQ" has nothing to do with Mongolian cuisine!

Living Expenses

If you want a mildly distopian world, giants may save on food by eating food that is only fit for animals but not fit for human consumption. This could be justified if their digestive system is more robust than humans'.

To be honest, I'd see housing and transportation as the biggest difficulties. Could they fit in a normal bedroom, or even a lounge room? How would they cook or wash themselves? Would they have to live in some sort of shanty town?

Also, could they drive their own car or ride in human public transport, or would they have to ride in the back of a ute or a truck?

Golden Cuy
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Giants are typically hired for an jobs where physical strength is a huge asset and intellectual prowess isn't really that important.

For example, giants typically are employed as construction workers or miners. However, they can also be used for some of the more physically challenging tasks in eg. farming or warehouse management.

Last but not least, they're also very useful as ground troops in military combat.

John Slegers
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Aside from the answers like military and crowd control, their strength can be used like a power source.

Giant Powered Transportation

Instead of having to use fossil fuels or electricity to run the metro or trams, you could instead use the giant's immense strength to your advantage. You can create a mechanism that converts their arm strength into kinetic energy to make the train move. They could possibly become exhausted, so swapping giants between train stops would be necessary. A conductor may be required as working and knowing when to stop would be too much work.

Demolition

If a house needs to be demolished, give a giant some protective gear and they can demolish a house without the need of machinery.

Bradman175
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