this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
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So you think a barista should be paid as much as a surgeon or nurse practitioner, both with more than a decade of education and correlated schooling expenses?
Can I have some of whatever you're smoking?
The meme isn't saying that they should be paid the same, it's saying that just because you're a janitor doesn't mean you deserve to be living off of ramen packets and 4 hours of sleep every day.
A janitor is skilled labour though.
So the issue is already moot because people don't even understand the nuances in the job market.
A janitor can kill people if they don't do their job properly, or themselves, if they use any of their tools improperly. It can take several years for a professional cleaner to become well trained.
An unskilled labour position would be a cashier or barista. A farmer requires years of training and should be paid according to the amount of effort it takes to become a trained farmer. The cook (used to) require a red seal, which is several years training, now days it's microwave/fry/flip and is thus unskilled into robot replacement.
The examples even used in the meme suck. The landscaper and construction workers are absolutely skilled labour.
This is trying to 'equalize' the job market but you can't do that. Different jobs require different training and you should be paid accordingly. The only people 'justifying' poverty wages are the billionaires, no one else thinks that 7 dollars is appropriate, however, by trying to push this meme the OP and a lot of people in the replies are trying to pretend like 'any job that doesn't have a degree associated is 'unskilled labour' according to capitalists' but that's not the case, and even the investing market doesn't believe that, i.e. 'da capitalists'.
A batista can kill by using incorrect cleaning chemicals, wrong ingredients to those who may be allergic, or who knows wtf. Food workers have food safety.
Don't be so silly.
You are missing the point of what I said or are intentionally misrepresenting what I said.
I think I was trying to point out that unskilled labor isn't always unskilled. Some do require higher skill by a significant amount but there is seldom a job where no skill can get you by.
You can't go in to a job and do it with zero experience anywhere, therefore it is skilled labour.
You immediately changed the core of the discussion to fit your view not to actually discuss the matters at hand.
"Unskilled labour" = job you can be trained in, in under two months
"skilled labour" = decades of education and experience requiring acute professionalism in order to not kill people
No one said the barista can't have a house, I specifically said, IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS, "you expect a barista to be paid as much as a surgeon or nurse".
No. Because you do not deserve the pay of a surgeon or nurse and you do not have the expenses of a surgeon or nurse.
FYI medical school is extremely expensive, and so is post secondary education in any form. I say this because your clear illustration of ineptitude leads me to believe you have very little formal education, if any.
Yeah, your argument is bad. I think the number of people who legitimately think, "a barista should be paid the same as a surgeon!" are in an extreme minority. What's not in the minority, however, are the number of people who attempt to justify poverty wages for people working jobs that don't require as much training. The person you responded to was justified in calling your argument a leap because it is
It's a leap for anyone who has poor reading comprehension and refuses to engage in the topic and would rather push a view.
Every time that meme is presented (or any form of 'unskilled labour isn't real opinions) there's a foray of incompetent tools pushing the belief that communism or some form of 'geared wages' is going to fix the problem with monopolies and greedy billionaires.
I, and most other comments here, are presenting a reality that 'unskilled labour' is real, and no one is trying to justify poverty wages, we're justifying a reality that education does in fact make a difference for monetary gain