Flippanarchy

Yeah, I'd argue 'unskilled labour' or 'low skilled labour' doesn't necessarily mean you should be paid poverty wages.

Imo that's a regulation/policy issue, not a capitalism issue, but I'm happy for someone to talk me through why that isn't the case.

The problem is that you aren’t paid by the value you bring. We have to fight tooth and nail to get even a fraction of what we’re worth, even in skilled jobs, and there are many executives that realized that they’re better off instilling fear of firing into people than they are worrying about whether or not someone can be replaced. Hell, most of them don’t even have the barest respect for senior workers and will happily replace them with a less skilled, but also cheaper, worker to save a buck in the short-term.

The concept of supply and demand in jobs has died because we lack the ability to enforce it. It’s completely fucked up. I heard someone say recently that it shouldn’t be a “job market” but a “labour market” and I fully agree. They need us, most executives are just dead-weight with money, so why the fuck do they get to be the beggars and the choosers?

Ultimately, if we were paid based on the value we bring then CEOs wouldn’t be getting millions of dollars of bonuses while laying people off to try to keep their own worthless jobs for just one more quarter. If we were paid based on the value we bring then millions of essential workers would be in a much better position but instead they can’t even get raises that match inflation. Like, if your workplace doesn’t, at the very least, give you an inflation-based adjustment to your salary before ever even getting to a true raise then that place is taking you for a ride.

That's the point, the myth is always about "unskilled labour" and that's specifically what pro-capitalist people believe - that low skill is the same as unskilled and low wages workers are "unskilled" and that's why they deserve to stay where they are because they are brainless. And I am obviously above that, so you better not raise the lowest wages to the same as my level, it would be an insult to my skills that I totally have and they don't. That is specifically the message and the brainwashing.

Draw all the academic distinctions you like.

There is no such thing as unskilled labor.

Face up to the fact.

Don’t muzzle the oxen who is treading your grain. It’s the least you can do after taking his balls.

From a government perspective they are. If you ever try to immigrate to one of the "desired countries" you'll quickly find out how worthless the average worker is in the eye of a pen pusher.

Very certainly farm-hands and manual laborers are.

Did you know that aircraft mechanics were considered unskilled labor until the job was "reclassified" during the Cold War due to the demand for laborers?

From a cultural sense, both farmers and bricklayers are absolutely considered unskilled by the general public. The average person makes no difference between the generic construction labor usually done by illegal immigrants (in the US) and a bricklayer.

It’s just supply and demand. It doesn’t matter how long you have to be trained or how many PhDs you have. Like it takes years to become a decent 3D animator, but those guys get paid peanuts compared to many other jobs that require the same amount of training. Since there are thousands of desperate fresh grad animators looking for a job every year. For every job at Pixar there is a line waiting for someone to get fired.

Also why for example plumbers and electricians get paid really well nowadays sometimes more than people with advanced degrees. Since there is a shortage of plumbers and electricians.

I have a PhD and this isn't true unfortunately. Most of my friends with PhDs struggle to find work relevant to their field.

I'd also like to know how much time it takes to train a CEO who makes half a million dollars a year.

I think he’s peeing in a bottle because Amazon harshly discourages taking breaks.

Bullshit jobs often tend to be better paid however. No paper pusher is getting paid minimum wage iirc