• Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    All labor is skilled labor, but packing boxes sure as shit isn’t more skill than a short order cook.

    • Cowbee@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I’ll do you one in reverse: all labor can be represented in the unskilled labor required to recreate it. If unskilled labor is x, and skilled labor is 2x, skilled is just a higher quantity of unskilled labor as expressed per hour.

      • tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        I don’t think you are saying they are actually interchangeable in that way, but employers think like this and will hire multiple ‘unskilled’ people to do a job that would take one ‘skilled’ person. In reality the work done by unskilled people will not be the same as the skilled person.

        • Cowbee@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Yes, skilled labor isn’t normally represented in multiple people selling unskilled labor, but rather the unskilled labor of training and whatnot.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        No. Because that is assuming that all work has more primitive forms that are still extent. There really isn’t a market for unskilled heart surgery. Lots of work is binary, you can and should do it, or you can’t and should definitely not try.

        The model you are advocating is a gross simplification that wouldn’t even be applicable to basic machine parts.

        • Cowbee@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          No, you’re grossly misinterpreting what I’m saying.

          Heart Surgery is represented as the condensed unskilled labor of decades of experience before even being able to perform one. All of that training requires decades of hard training to replicate.

          I’m not implying that you can get 40 dudes with no training to do heart surgery together.

          • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            How would that even work? Who is training the surgeon? Where does the unskilled labor go, does it hover about the person like a spirit?

            Maybe humans are more complicated than “well since this guy has a CPR cert his labor is 1.2x the person without”.

            • Cowbee@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              You’re still thinking of it in completely the wrong way. All skilled labor is, is unskilled labor for training, and current labor. Nobody gives a shit who trained who, or where it magically needs to hang.

                • Cowbee@lemm.ee
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                  1 year ago

                  Almost. Labor + labor = skilled labor, as skills are just embodied labor.

                  No, I’m not studying to become an economist, but I am familiar with economics.

            • unfreeradical@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I think the observation is that little or no broad difference emerges between training for providing skilled labor, versus simply providing labor that may be considered as unskilled. In either case, one provides labor, with or without the intention of developing skill, but certainly converging toward such an effect.

    • unfreeradical@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Every skill is different from others qualitatively, not ranked hierarchically, one above or below another.

      • canni@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        My skill is shitting in a corner, I’ve practiced and I’m very good at it, and I don’t want no electricity scientists saying they’re better than me goddammit.

      • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Both are just following instructions. I just put a fry cook slightly higher because a mistake on their part could burn the building down. A box filler, not so much.

        • unfreeradical@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          May I hold a box packer in higher regard, because of all the days I would lose from being shipped the wrong item, or would I be missing the concerns of broader relevance?

    • Stuka@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I get what you’re saying, but calling any position a cook at McDonald’s is uhh…generous.