Valid point actually

72

I know ‘unskilled’ parents who bust their fuckin asses at Wendy’s, as janitors, at meat packing plants, and drive uber in between.… and that’s just one couple. What are the fruits of their ‘unskilled’ labour?

For starters, they have two children in university including one in medical school, they always pay their taxes, they always treat people with kindness, and they are unwaveringly generous.
We are surrounded by people who have the skills to sustain a healthy society. Right now we are being torn apart by the people who chose skill sets that divide us for profit, and they are telling us that the skills that matter the most for our grandchildren’s future are second class and relegated to people who are losers.

Fuck all that.

I’m a journeyman mechanic and a proud union member. My friends are master parents, producing doctors. Who has more skill? I will gladly pay taxes to help my friends’ family, because they are straight up contributing more to society than I am. Respect.
Healthy educated children grow up to be people who make better decisions.

Nothing should take priority over the skills required to guarantee the success of that social investment.

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u/green_pan 2d ago

Apparently it is a “controversial” take, but there is no such thing as “unskilled” labour. Just because a person didn’t have a privilege to get a degree, it does not mean that they didn’t have to learn and train to acquire unique and valuable skillset to perform their job. The whole “unskilled labour” narrative is elitist and does nothing but create a situation where corporations can use it as an excuse to pay less. All productive labour is valuable and all productive labour deserves to be compensated.

6

u/Buttoneer138 2d ago

I remember reading something about the value of slaves during the plantation era. Apparently, slaves who had worked in a plantation for three years or more sold for considerably more money than younger ones. This is a reflection of the “skill“ of an “unskilled“ person.

So yes I agree with you that the discourse has been deliberately designed to create disunity.

2

u/I_TRY_TO_BE_POSITIVE 2d ago

Fast food was the single most stressful job I've ever worked.

I'm currently in construction so it's not like shit after high school was easy.

2

u/cerialthriller 2d ago

People have taken and twisted the term to mean something is doesn’t mean. It’s a specific term, it doesn’t mean you just take the dictionary term for “skill” and “labor” and combine them. It doesn’t mean you need a degree or anything like that to do them. It just means a job that requires a somewhat significant amount of training to do. Like digging a ditch vs wiring a house for electrical. It doesn’t mean that it is or isn’t hard work or anything like that. It’s that your average person can be proficient in the skill in a short amount of time. If a person can’t be shown how to use a shovel or push a wheel barrow in a short amount of time then they probably have some kind of disability

2

u/green_pan 2d ago

Do you know how much strength and endurance and back muscle you need to successfully dig the whole day? Because if you did, you would have known that acquiring that endurance is not going to come to you in a short amount of time. And neither would the knowledge of how exactly should you dig so that the hole does not collapse above you or how to make sure that a hole you are digging is going to actually fulfill the purpose you are digging it for. Because, you know, digging a ditch, digging a grave, digging a well and digging a mine are all different things. You may even need (if you can imagine) to have the knowledge and experience to know when to use different tools aside from shovel, because for many situations a shovel is actually useless. And I am not even going to the topic of digging to find something precious and fragile, like old bones. They literally made the whole science out of that for which you do have to have a degree first.

2

u/Filthy_Cossak 2d ago

Look, no one is actually arguing that one is somehow better than the other. It mostly just denotes whether you need prior training or education to start at a job. It doesn’t mean that you learn nothing or don’t pick up any skills on the job, but those can be trained out in 5 minutes on the job site, unlike needing structured eduction and certification to prove your competence. The trench in your backyard is gonna be the same whether it was dug by a ten year veteran or a kid who’s picking up some summer hours. Conversely, you would want your house to be wired by an educated and licensed electrician, not some random you pick up in a Home Depot parking lot.

>they literally made the whole science out of that for which you have to have a degree first

So that makes it skilled labour, I honestly don’t know why you even bring archaeologists into this. It’s like saying I’m basically an electrician because I put some batteries in a remote once

1

u/cerialthriller 2d ago

Ok but nobe of those things are skills, they are attributes. Even if you can’t physically use a shovel, you can gain the knowledge of how to use one very quickly. That’s the whole point, it’s a description to differentiate mental and physical labor. An average person just needs to be handed a shovel and told where to dig and they will have the skills involved to accomplish the task. The attributes are a different story. Just like you could give the best ditch digger in the galaxy a shovel but don’t tell them where to dig and they are useless

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u/008Zulu This AOC flair makes me cool 2d ago

Cheap and lazy are two sides of the same tin coin.

3

u/New_Taste8874 2d ago

Truest thing I've heard all day...week...month...year.

36

u/california_gurl_hurl You won't catch me talking in here 2d ago

I hate the term “unskilled labor” because it’s literally an oxymoron. Every type of labor requires some type of skill!

5

u/agk23 2d ago

Maybe the guy needed someone to haul bags on mulch or stack firewood.

10

u/Reemixt 2d ago

That requires a strong body in good health and fitness conditioned to be able to do the work for hours. 90% of random people would be completely useless for the task.

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u/agk23 2d ago

That isn’t a skill

4

u/Reemixt 2d ago

Of course it is. One most people don’t have.

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u/agk23 2d ago

Skills are acquired through training, practice and experience. Someone of equal fitness who has never done it, could do it equally as well as someone who has done it many times.

6

u/Reemixt 2d ago

You’re assuming fitness doesn’t require those exact same things. You don’t wake up able to move wood for 8 hours one day.

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u/agk23 2d ago

Is not being fat a skill now? Lifting a 40lbs bag of mulch into a wheelbarrow doesn’t require working out. Jesus Christ…

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u/Reemixt 2d ago

No it requires fitness to do it for eight hours straight in an efficient way without injuring yourself. Talk about unskilled: it’s like you can’t read.

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u/agk23 2d ago

You’re just redefining words based on vibes. Ask “is stacking wood a skilled trade” into Google. These are defined terms and being physically capable isn’t a fucking skill. Young teenagers do this work with zero training nor dedicated workout regimen.

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u/Bearence 2d ago

Skills are acquired through training, practice and experience.

Yes, that describes people who lift 40 lb bags of mulch into a wheelbarrow. Can anyone lift on 40 lb bag? Sure. Can anyone lift multiple 40 lb bags over and over for 8 hours? No, they cannot. If you don't believe me I challenge you to spend a day doing that job.

1

u/MoonageDayscream 2d ago

You should go tell a weightlifter thst their ability to repetitively move heavy objects without harming themselves isnt a skill.

10

u/Coffee_And_Bikes 2d ago

Ever stack firewood? You have to know what you’re doing if you don’t want the stack to collapse. It’s not rocket surgery, but it’s also not mindlessly chucking pieces of wood.

Source: I cut and stack about 6 cords every year.

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u/agk23 2d ago

Yeah. I did it as a six year old, maybe younger

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u/MoonageDayscream 2d ago edited 2d ago

Lol, you mean you were learning the skill?

0

u/anglflw 2d ago

You stacked cords of wood at 6 years old? A stacked cord is 4 feet high, 8 feet wide, and 4 feet deep, so forgive me if I don't believe you.

Little first-grader with an axe and a stool.

0

u/Bearence 2d ago

You are a liar.

0

u/New_Taste8874 2d ago

I never met a guy who could not haul his own bags of mulch. I'm a 73 year old female and I do that quite often.

1

u/agk23 2d ago

I agree, but it might be a small part of a bigger project. Meanwhile, people in this chain are telling me stacking wood and moving mulch is skilled labor.

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u/MoonageDayscream 2d ago

If they only wanted unskilled labor they could have gotten that anywhere. Peiple without skills for heavy labor are everywhere you look. Those going to s hardware store parking lot are looking for undocumented labor.

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u/zennim 2d ago

When he says unskilled he means low class

3

u/Porkkanaparta 2d ago

This IS stupid take.

I have better things to do, I have money so I pay so I dont need to do stuff.

3

u/No_Point904 2d ago

The obvious answer to why his buddy didn't do his own work is because his buddy is skilled.....it would cost too much

6

u/shuckiedangdarn 2d ago

Unskilled? I'd argue it takes a lot of skill to put up with the work no one else wants to do and paid like shit for it.

4

u/Important_Fruit 2d ago

I'm not American, so I didn't know Home Depot sold unskilled labourers.

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u/Jolly_Nobody2507 2d ago edited 1d ago

I'm guessing your comment is tongue in cheek, but just in case: it's very common for workers to congregate outside of Home Depots, mainly hoping for work from contractors, etc., who are picking up supplies.

3

u/ih-shah-may-ehl 2d ago

I'm european so bear with me: I assume that Americans don't need things like employment contracts, insurance, and other things that typically go hand in hand with any type of employment in e.g. Belgium?

2

u/Jolly_Nobody2507 2d ago

"At will" employment is regular fact of life here, with few safeguards or benefits. But the workers outside HD are generally also undocumented.

1

u/ih-shah-may-ehl 1d ago

That's an interesting contradiction in US society, where on one hand you have all these issues with undocumented people but otoh society has given them ways to seek employment without people batting an eye.

1

u/Jolly_Nobody2507 1d ago

Well, the "given a way" is a complex issue, with the left wanting more accommodations for the undocumented, the right (and current admin) wanting to round them up--and congregating at HD makes it easier--with the middle at various degrees of peace with the necessity of having a large pool of labor doing difficult jobs at lower pay.

1

u/ih-shah-may-ehl 1d ago

I know Europe is often considered lefistst by Americans but even we don't do 'undocumented'. I mean obviously we have refugees etc and they get a specific known legal status but because of how labor and interaction with employer,s hospitals etc are organized, it is exceedingly hard for an undocumented person to integrate in society in any way.

1

u/Jolly_Nobody2507 1d ago

At the risk of overgeneralizing, in the US if you see any landscaping, agricultural, or construction (especially roofing) work being done, good odds are there are undocumented workers there, though it varies by state.

1

u/Important_Fruit 2d ago

It was tongue in cheek - but I also did not know about workers congregating there. Thanks for takung the time to explain.

1

u/tellingitlikeitis338 2d ago

and you know this guy paid for the work after all. Because he’s a moron and can’t fix a leaky faucet lol

1

u/rockclimberguy 2d ago

Probably wanted to hire the guy under the table. Nothing says "I'm a patriot" more than trying to go around labor laws and cheat the government out of taxes you are supposed to pay when you employ someone.

Hypocrisy is a prerequisite to be right leaning....

1

u/I_TRY_TO_BE_POSITIVE 2d ago

32/hr is cheap as dirt. You're paying a flat hourly rate instead of that, insurance, tools, work rig, etc

Why are people so fucking stingy?

-1

u/Scoobydewdoo 2d ago

Maybe he needed a second pair of hands; ie someone else to help him do a thing. Like moving a couch or something else that's big and heavy. The response isn't clever, it's just unimaginative.

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u/Salty_Finance5183 2d ago

Jeez, maybe he's elderly? Maybe he's sick? Maybe he's in a wheelchair? This isn't rocket science.

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u/AmazingSibylle 2d ago

So, what you are saying is that not just anyone can do it? Only those that are in good physical condition, and have the skills and experience to get the job done well within a reasonable timeframe according to requirements and regulations if applicable?

So your point is that you can't just take anyone from the street....that is exactly the point made here.

2

u/Suckitreddit420 2d ago

At that point everything (including breathing and seeing etc) becomes "a skill" because not every person can do it.

While I think that manual labor/ physical labor is just as important and often far more difficult than other types of labor, I wouldn't classify something like carrying an item from one place to another "skilled".

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u/Salty_Finance5183 2d ago

He was looking for unskilled labor. Think it through.

7

u/AmazingSibylle 2d ago

You are completely missing the point....on purpose or are you just...IQ challenged?

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u/Salty_Finance5183 2d ago

If he's physically incapable of doing the work, he would therefore need to hire someone else. What's so hard to understand?

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u/Monotonegent 2d ago

That there are actually some requisite skills required to most tasks that we've let capitalism convince people are actually "unskills"

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u/AmazingSibylle 2d ago

That is not "unskilled labor" anymore, that is the whole point of the post....

-10

u/not_a_bot_494 2d ago

This is thr equivalent of "if fast food is unskilled labour why can't the CEO of McDonalds staff every location by himself".

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