I fear the answer is no. Even my field, in which there are no labs, and groupwork is not as essential as other fields, also has plenty of research assistantships. To some extent it's part of the feudal aspect of unviersity life. Students get fellowships - or salaries - for their work, and sometimes their name for publications; the professor gets quality (and cheap) labor. In an ideal work, the assistant would always learn from the work and become a better scholar (in my experience this has almost always been the case), but some folks are used for more menial jobs (though even telephonic surveys teach you something about methodology). Is it wonderful? Absolutely not. But it certainly is prevalent and part of university life and most certainly did not merit the sardonic tone and ugly remarks and insinuations of the message I was replying to.