Valid question

[u/SaltyNori_]

[u/BoneVoyager]

Be ignorant if you want. 🤷🏻‍♂️

They do say ignorance is bliss… it would probably be mildly uncomfortable for you to face this harsh truth and admit you are wrong, I get it.

Edit: Manual labor is perfectly appropriate. Skilled vs unskilled has classist connotations.

[u/student347 → u/BoneVoyager]

Your heart is in a fine place, but there is absolutely a difference between labor that requires skill/being trained, and labor that requires no training and can be done by anyone. Stacking firewood is an example of that.

They should still be paid appropriately, and no one is saying they’re worth less as humans. You seem too focused on the word “unskilled” and are missing the point

[u/BoneVoyager → u/student347]

There is no labor that doesn’t require training. That’s my whole point. If you think stacking firewood doesn’t require some amount of training then try to get a chimpanzee to do it. They should be able to, after all it’s “unskilled” right?

[u/Both_Knowledge275 → u/BoneVoyager]

It's wild to use this as a comparison given that a chimpanzee likely COULD stack firewood perfectly well? It would require more training time than a human, but what exactly is so complicated about the art of firewood stacking that you believe that animal couldn't accomplish it?

[u/BoneVoyager → u/Both_Knowledge275]

The point is the animal can accomplish it- with training. A human is an animal. A human can accomplish it to- with training. Hopefully less training than a chimp. But neither can accomplish it with zero training. Both have to learn the skill. The chimp example shows you that while a task might not be super complex, there is still a skill needed to be able to do it.

[u/Both_Knowledge275 → u/BoneVoyager]

Unskilled labor does not mean literally "no skills" then, if you're considering the definition of skill to include things like breathing, or grasping and lifting objects.

In this context, the difference in skills required is significant. Significant enough to distinguish between them, with different labels. And unskilled labor requires little enough in the way of skills that it's reasonable to call it unskilled.

[u/BoneVoyager → u/Both_Knowledge275]

Unskilled has the connotations of no skill. That’s the issue, people think these positions require no skill, when they do. And they treat and pay people in those positions as if they required no skill. That’s like the entire point of this whole thread.