I don't think it's too unusual for people to think of their own jobs as super important and complicated and everything else is just simple shit in comparison. Watching someone do something they are trained at (because they do it day-in-day-out) often looks simple ... until the moment you try it yourself and realize the amount of concentration you suddenly need and the many questions that pop up for details you didn't even notice before.
It's a form of short-sightedness and/or lack of experience. But not uncommon.
It might be a side effect that we are all well of aware of the smallest of details and hidden complexity of what we do as a job/serious-hobby, whilst having a very high level and ultra shallow idea of everything else, hence tending to think about other people's job that "I could easilly learn do that".
I've learned a number of expert areas over the years in my career and it's always that which happens for me: I start with the idea that "it should be easy" and about 2 years later I'm keenly aware on just how little I still know about it. Even after being aware of this effect, I still start by significiantly underestimating the true complexity of any new area I'm learning.
It's the same "underestimating of the complexity of what we don't know in depth" that's behind the Dunning-Krugger Effect IMHO.
I mean, isn't it? There's a reason we have TV shows where we record the CEO fucking up doing the "least skilled" jobs in their organization. It's easy to film because there's always another dumbass CEO who doesn't know what they're in for.
I work a job where I get to interact with everyone else's jobs, and I haven't run into a single one that I could confidently call "unskilled".
All labour is skilled labor. Unskilled labour was created by capitalists as a flimsy justification for paying people unlivable wages. ANY labour deserves a livable wage. Needing a second job is an injustice.
Now that being said, packing boxes for Amazon is 100% unskilled labour. A machine spits out the box template sheet with creases where the cardboard sheet should be folded to turn it into a box within seconds. Another machine prints the receipt that goes inside, and Another machine spits out an appropriate amount of packing to make sure the product stays in place inside the box. Another machine spits out a calculated amount of tape. Another machine spits out the info sticker that needs to be stuck on the outside.
Does this need a lot of skill or training? I don't think so, no.
That's the big lie the right wants you to believe; there's no such thing as unskilled labor. You have to learn every job you start. Flipping burgers, packing boxes, cleaning, washing dishes, etc all have a learning curve. There is no job you can walk in off the street and start doing without previous knowledge.
As a former warehouse worker and shipping clerk, it is 100% unskilled labor. We would sometimes hire temp workers for really busy periods, and it would take about 30 minutes to train them.
Yeah, and as someone who works in QA for a carrier repacking some of those boxes I can tell. Shippers really don't seem to care that their packages don't even make it to the shipping phase, let alone through our damn building.
Yeah, why the heck would packing boxes be more skilled than cooking? I view them pretty comparable in my mind. Though cooking is one where if you do it wrong, people can get sick or die.
And with all due respect to Amazon employees, I've seen firsthand the packaging Amazon does. They love to use hilariously oversized boxes for a single item and also love to ship multiple items I bought in separate boxes despite them being shipped and arriving at the same time. They're not exactly master packagers.
I think he meant unskilled labor but doesn't know it. Mindless labor. Still labor. And nobody deserves 150k/m off the backs of unskilled labor, that's just slave wages with inflation.
This whole living wage thing is starting to sound communist. Maybe instead we'd better skip the fuss and just give everyone the food, shelter, clothing, and base amenities needed to survive as a fundamental human right, and not worry about payment. That'll show those fucking lefties all obsessed with minimum wage increases!
Then who will you look down on? When you life is nothing but frenemies you're in competition, when you have some reminder of the things you did to the world over money that means less than video game points, when you realize the people who cheer you actually are just cheering for the company you bought and the people you squeeze dry and discard. When you accidentally see a post from a hater and realize not only do they have a point, they also know you better than your fans.
In the quiet moments, when feelings of emptiness and anger at the world you played an active role ruining, you get to look down on them.
You must be living a great life, because just watch how they put on a smile and dance not because you'll pay well (you won't), but out of fear that your mild annoyance could wreck their life. That the kids you forced them to have could be taken because they're already on the brink of homelessness, and they need this job. The fear that just for funsies, you might make a few calls and have their life methodically torn apart.
And that's why they won't try to kill us. We keep their little dominance games less adversarial. We're not the game pieces, we're the board - and if the board shrinks there's a chance of actually losing the game.
We make them feel powerful and superior, because here's the thing - no one who has a billion dollars and keeps actively working to make more is doing it because they're happy - at that level they're not even doing it because they like the game - millionaires might enjoy it, but it's like playing poker with a 5¢ buy in - they'd be building something for free if it was about building things or making deals - they've already maxed out how lavish a life can be
No, they're doing it for respect from their peers. Because they think it'll make them respected by the people they respect, but it won't. But they were raised to believe money was worth, because what's the alternative - to recognize you deserve none of it?
No, the truth is, this world sucks for everyone. Some people find joy anyways, but most of us just have varying degrees of mental illness
@BarterClub That person should be mad that Amazon pays so little, not that another worker gets the same as them. This is one of the huge problems in the U.S., the lack of worker solidarity.
Amazon *CAN* pay more for example, but chooses not to, so Bezos, etc. can make more money for themselves.
Isn't this the american way? as long as someone is doing worse, then you're doing better?
If a guyu fliping burgers makes more than you, go flip burgers!
The reply to that tweet makes a lot of sense and it's been around for a while. Why doesn't this change more people's minds? It changed mine the first time I saw it.
Classism!? How can you be classist against your own class.
I have a shit job that pays shit all but its better than your equally shit job that pays an equally shit wage..
Wtf is wrong with people?
Ita like theres a big turd and everyone just wants to be able to touch the turd but some people are touching a bit of the turd thats higher up the turd, some are touching the highest bit of the turd thats almost touching rhe ceiling. Those touching the top of the turd think they are better than those touching the bottom. And those touching the middle think they are better than those touching the bottom and want to be the ones touching the top. Those at the bottom resent the others and wish they could touch any part of the turd that wasnt at the bottom and everyone fights each other to climb the turd.
Meanwhile amazon is wiping that turd off their shoe.
Because most people have the notion that the money Bezos makes is deserved. Society has been conditioned into believing that the value of their labor is set by the capital owner(s) and the owner is entitled to as much profits as they desire because they're the owner. It's a huge undertaking to question societal norms and reject the capitalist value of labor. It's especially daunting when the opposing ideas have been presented as blasphemous and condensed under the umbrella term of "Socialism", which itself has been demonized into an evil ideology that is fully incompatible with democracy and freedom.