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Comment by coffeecloud | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure what you consider low-skilled - but have you tried to hire someone to build or fix anything recently?

Labor jobs seem to demand a huge price right now - and I don't think anyone is predicting robots that can tile a backsplash, install a 240v outlet, or even dig a trench for a sewer line anywhere in the near future. Let alone have the cost of owning and operating such a robot be more cost effective than paying a human.

I'm much more concerned about lawyers, accountants, marketers, and software engineers than I am people who physically build and fix things.

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The cost of labor is tied to rent.

People need to pay rent. As the housing crisis spirals and people need more money to pay rent, they will job hop to do so.

I’m not sure if it’s what you meant but have you ever tried to build or fix anything recently? It’s the opposite of low-skilled and I’d bet the majority of supposedly high-skilled workers wouldn’t have a hope of completing a job even satisfactorily.

Imho labour rates are going up because they are for people who are actually doing real, scientific-definition-of-work while other people collect ridiculous paycheques for chatting on Zoom

Sorry if I sound bitter but I implore anyone to give it a shot themselves before they complain about paying for real labour.

I've done it and I think it's neither. Neither easier nor harder than software engineering and the like. Just different tools. Very similar in a way really.

Why one pays more? Not sure. Some kind of higher barrier to entry for software, weirdly enough. Something about the working with your hands stuff I think makes it easier to persevere than working with something virtual and abstract? Just guessing here. But the smoking gun is, why is abstract math achievement so low in America? Like a small minority of grown adults can do basic algebra. Yet a lot of blue collar work really is just as intellectually demanding. I mean you're constantly solving the [[Planning problem]] and all kinds of problems that come up in [[Operations research]]

Exactly! I used almost the same example as you doing a tier ranking of jobs impacted by AI (https://youtu.be/4KSs29EPd8M)

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