I cannot talk for your the grand parent, but I can think of a million reasons to have such a job. Great colleagues, good benefits (vacation, health-care, etc.), tied to a small town without good opportunities, ...
By the way, fixing other people's bugs and tech support may not always be quite as boring and demeaning as you make it out to be.
Your disdain for menial work is misguided. There's more to life than your work.
The small town effect would seem to apply in my case. I'm not too close to a major metro, but some insane people commute from here.
Maintenance isn't so bad except for how it's managed. michaelochurch addressed this well in his reply [http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3024752]. I could do with less tech support, but haven't gotten around to automating it away.
By the way, fixing other people's bugs and tech support may not always be quite as boring and demeaning as you make it out to be.
Your disdain for menial work is misguided. There's more to life than your work.