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Skills that are low on the prestige scale are unskilled. Skills that pay well automatically rate higher on the prestige scale. Skills that pay poorly are skills

Skills that are low on the prestige scale are unskilled. Skills that pay well automatically rate higher on the prestige scale. Skills that pay poorly are skills that can be easily provided by whoever, which is what "unskilled" means. I have lots of skills that would be incredibly valuable in an ant context; that doesn't mean they count as "skills" in a human context.

Dylan16807 2y ago
> Skills that pay well automatically rate higher on the prestige scale. This is pretty true. Though manual labor usually has less prestige at equal pay. > Skills that pay poorly are skills that can be easily provided by whoever This is much less true. There are plenty of skills that require a master's degree level of learning but also pay poorly.
- WalterBright 2y ago
  > There are plenty of skills that require a master's degree level of learning but also pay poorly. There are many more of such masters than the market needs, so the pay drops until Demand meets Supply.
  - Dylan16807 2y ago
    Of course. But low demand doesn't make them unskilled, right? I'm arguing against the idea that low pay/prestige makes them unskilled.
    - Ekaros 2y ago
      You could even have extremely skilled, moderately paid, but still relatively low prestige. And top of the trades pyramid go to this category. Think of specialised welders, were you need both years of expertise and probably quite a bit of aptitude... And the job is no way unskilled, but still would have less prestige in general population than some simpler job more of white collar type.
Nasrudith 2y ago
There is also the case of the 'outcast' skills which are currently stigmatized. Unless there is a literal caste of people stuck doing these jobs they tend to ironically have to pay better. Porn actresses get paid in part for the 'reputational damage' as even today people are deeply silly/stupid about past work. Skilled labor in terms of "needs many years training" outcast skills are practically a hypothetical, and are what I would call 'high entropy' in the sense that it would take a lot of work and rare combinations to achieve. Practically an exercise for science fiction writers to depict say, a society where say heart surgery is viewed as deeply shameful yet still managed to perfect the art of heart surgery anyway.

Dylan16807 2y ago

> Skills that pay well automatically rate higher on the prestige scale. This is pretty true. Though manual labor usually has less prestige at equal pay. > Skills that pay poorly are skills that can be easily provided by whoever This is much less true. There are plenty of skills that require a master's degree level of learning but also pay poorly.

WalterBright 2y ago
> There are plenty of skills that require a master's degree level of learning but also pay poorly. There are many more of such masters than the market needs, so the pay drops until Demand meets Supply.
- Dylan16807 2y ago
  Of course. But low demand doesn't make them unskilled, right? I'm arguing against the idea that low pay/prestige makes them unskilled.
  - Ekaros 2y ago
    You could even have extremely skilled, moderately paid, but still relatively low prestige. And top of the trades pyramid go to this category. Think of specialised welders, were you need both years of expertise and probably quite a bit of aptitude... And the job is no way unskilled, but still would have less prestige in general population than some simpler job more of white collar type.

Nasrudith 2y ago

There is also the case of the 'outcast' skills which are currently stigmatized. Unless there is a literal caste of people stuck doing these jobs they tend to ironically have to pay better. Porn actresses get paid in part for the 'reputational damage' as even today people are deeply silly/stupid about past work. Skilled labor in terms of "needs many years training" outcast skills are practically a hypothetical, and are what I would call 'high entropy' in the sense that it would take a lot of work and rare combinations to achieve. Practically an exercise for science fiction writers to depict say, a society where say heart surgery is viewed as deeply shameful yet still managed to perfect the art of heart surgery anyway.