• bluesheep@sh.itjust.works
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        17 days ago

        And adding to this, in what world is being a house painter unskilled? I’m pretty sure there’s a large difference of skill between me chucking paint at a wall and hoping it sticks and someone who’s been doing it for years

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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          15 days ago

          Same story as a retail job, basically. Anyone can do it at a basic level (and lots of people do jump right in professionally), although speed and quality will improve with practice. Compare that to tiling a shower or putting in electrical, where substandard work will lead to damage or actual injury.

          They get paid way less than other tradespeople as a result.

          It was the least skilled modern and Western blue collar job I could think of. Most of the rest have been partly automated, which blurs the line with white collar jobs. For example, a crop farmer can stay perfectly clean and comfortable all day driving a combine. Edit: Although deciding the inputs and timings of things to crops is not unskilled, if they also do that.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        17 days ago

        It’s not clean - debriding an abscessed bowel is about the grossest dirtiest job I can think of. It can be very physical, particularly when working with bone.

        Those are the two criteria, the idea being that a white shirt (collar) would be ruined. Obviously, it’s not just a synonym for unskilled work, or OP’s question wouldn’t even make sense.