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"Unskilled labour" is a capitalist myth used to justify poverty wages. (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 7 months ago by cyu to c/unions

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https://mastodon.social/@peterjriley2024/111786893513746272

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

It's crazy that you needed to write this essay to explain to Lemmy folks that:

unskilled/low skill labor does in fact exist
it was not invented by the cApITaLiSm boogeyman
gets paid lower relative to other positions in the industry because they're both easily replaceable and on an individual level do not generate as much value to the business as skilled/trained/professional labor

The above things can be true while also saying that ALL labor (unskilled or not) should be treated with respect and basic human decency.

I'm not stanning capitalism here, I'm just tired of Lemmings who've either missed all of their basic econ classes or have never tried to run their own business telling me how to allocate wages relative to value.

Executive pay relative to everyone else is out of control, no arguments there. But skilled and professional labor is highly productive relative to unskilled, and should be compensated accordingly.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 8 points 7 months ago

Exactly. If all labor was valued equally, why would people bother becoming surgeons or air traffic control people? Those can be very high stress jobs and require specialized training to do properly. Higher wages are a huge part of why people choose those professions.

I agree about executive pay, but dismissing unequal pay is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

[–] whoelectroplateuntil 1 points 7 months ago

You really can't tell when someone's using ChatGPT to shit out persuasive essays?

[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago

The real problem is that for most of western history, unskilled labor was largely performed by slaves.

Funny thing is, you balance earnings and expenses for slaves vs modern workers, and the math vastly favors the slave. But that’s bad for other reasons.