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I would argue that manufacturing isn't real work. The "closer you are to the money", the more decisions you are making. That's where the value is.
by dfxm12 14y ago
I would argue that manufacturing isn't real work. The "closer you are to the money", the more decisions you are making. That's where the value is.
- krapp 14y agoI would argue that manufacturing is real work. No matter how brilliant your advertising strategy is, or how well you sell the sizzle, someone has to make the steak.
- dfxm12 14y agoAnyone can make the steak. All they are doing is following directions. They are as interchangeable as the parts they are assembling. That's why they don't get paid well.
- npsimons 14y agoYes, but a steak has intrinsic value; you can't eat advertising.
- dfxm12 14y agoThis is a bit of a strawman. The fact is that the people (on the assembly line) following instructions are less valuable (and thus will get paid less) to a firm than the people "at the top of the money funnel" who are the decision makers. Whether or not advertising has intrinsic value doesn't affect this.
- innguest 14y agoI would also argue against the idea that a steak (or anything else) has intrinsic value. I think all of it's value is extrinsic - it comes from people wanting it and being willing to pay a certain amount for it.
- krapp 14y agoBut... after the advertising does its work and brings people in, the customer's experience with the product supplants their experience with the advertising. Try to keep people coming back after you've fired your chefs and decided to only employ part-time cooks, because you believe any idiot can cook a steak. I think the attitude that labor is qualitatively unskillful or that even unskilled labor isn't critical to the value of a company (where that labor produces the product the company sells) is misguided. Quality often matters in surprising areas throughout the process, as does experience. If people come in expecting a great steak and they get something the busboy tossed into a microwave, they're just going to feel lied to. And rightly so.
- innguest 14y agoI agree with you. I'm surprised that you replied to my comment with this comment, as I fail to see the thread that links the two. I was saying that the value of the steak comes from people, and not from the steak.
- krapp 14y agoSorry, I was replying to dfxm and to you collectively and now I see I probably should have split it up into separate comments or something. I don't think the steak's extrinsic value (which definitely exists, and is generated by advertising and the 'decision makers') is greater than its intrinsic value, which I do believe is real and comes from labor... but quibbling over that might be splitting hairs.
- innguest 14y agoPerhaps that's the mindset I'm trying to get into. It still feels weird to think about the process making the product as not the most important, and not where the "real work" is. I've been slowly coming to terms with myself and accepting/discovering how the world actually works, and accordingly trying to change fields from IT to business.