4 ms·
As a solution to class mobility, you do. And as a route to increases in high-paying low-skill labour. My comment about "service jobs" is kinda evidenced with y
by mjburgess 4y ago
As a solution to class mobility, you do. And as a route to increases in high-paying low-skill labour.
My comment about "service jobs" is kinda evidenced with your own remark: the existence of high-value manufacturing jobs. The high-value here is always in the cognitive dimension, rather than the physical.
- cjbgkagh 4y agoMy assertion that more intelligence is required than commonly thought scales all the way down to the low value manufacturing. I’m often quite surprised at the ingenuity and skill that goes into low value manufacturing. In addition a substantial low value manufacturing base reduces the incremental cost of resources and tooling required by the high value manufacturing increasing the viability. Effectively setting up a cross subsidy.
- mjburgess 4y agoSure, but the political project is supposed to provide such jobs to people who are otherwise not very skilled. My point being that the relevant political project for increasing class mobility, prosperity etc. is skills/education/training/etc. rather than this false-belief that there is something called "Manufacturing" which pays well without such things. Or, to use the example given, it's "knowing where to put the chalk", rather than removing the metal plate. There is no modern rich economy which can sell "removing metal" as the route to prosperity. That used to be the case, but all that labour has been automated away or is otherwise not well-paying,. Now it is all about value-add via skills.
- cjbgkagh 4y agoMy concern is ‘modern rich economies’ are a temporary aberration due to financialization and that the intelligence vs work schism will fall apart due to the under-appreciation of the importance of maintaining a manufacturing base. I would agree with you if the windfall of having been intelligent was invested in becoming more intelligent and thus an advantage is maintained but by my observation that has not occurred. It seems people will instead use their relative luxury to hold increasingly illogical ideas. Not only will we not have a manufacturing base but we won’t be intelligent either. For now financialization is propping up our way of life but that won’t last forever.
- mjburgess 4y agoInteresting view, imo, probably wrong. We imagine the "value-add" due to advanced cognitive skill is somehow "less real" than that which could be replaced with a machine arm. What we have discovered, and will do so, is that knowing where to place the chalk was always the basis of profit.
- cjbgkagh 4y agoAt no point did I suggest cognitive work was less real. And what point is knowing where to place the chalk if there is no machine upon which to place it. Proximity is important. Then there is the matter of scale and a question of how many pure knowledge experts are really needed.
- wongarsu 4y agoI think one point worth appreciating (apart from the political reasons to drive manufacturing jobs) is that manufacturing provides jobs where people who are uneducated/low-skilled but intelligent can make significant contributions. Putting a fan next to a conveyor to filter out empty boxes doesn't require a college degree (if anything a college degree makes it more difficult to find that solution), but it is nonetheless a significant process improvement.