• Sarah Valentine (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    10 days ago

    The line I’m drawing is a wall between the value of your skills and the need to spend time using them just to afford to survive. Then if you choose to develop skills and use them for the benefit of others, it will be because you chose to and not because you felt you had no other choice. The time spent will be your own, for your own reasons and no one else’s. Its value will be a value you hold, not relying on the value others perceive it to have.

    • ch00f@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      That’s cool except what happens when there aren’t enough people who find 20,000 grueling hours in med school to be worth it when operating a water slide will give them the exact same lifestyle? How do we make more people want to be doctors? Or drive garbage trucks for that matter?

      • Wren@lemmy.today
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        9 days ago

        There are already people who spend years of effort getting less valuable positions. If it was purely about time/money spent, everyone would be competing for the most valuable jobs.

        • ch00f@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          Yes, but how many people? How do you get more people to be janitors or roofers when you need more janitors or roofers?

          • Wren@lemmy.today
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            9 days ago

            Equally valuing a position also destigmatizes the role. There are countries with free post-secondary education that still have jobs at every position.

            The same argument was made about the USSR, about a mechanic making as much as a doctor. They still had mechanics and doctors.

      • Sarah Valentine (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        10 days ago

        We could decrease the demand for doctors and garbage collectors any time we want, but capitalism says maximum growth, maximum consumption. Getting rid of that system will change the demand for those social roles as much as the supply.

        • ch00f@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          decrease the demand for doctors and garbage collectors any time we want

          By… getting less sick and having less garbage?

            • Wren@lemmy.today
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              9 days ago

              I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted when whole lobby groups exist for the rights to keep polluting, food deserts exist, anti-vax groups have taken over american healthcare so measles and smallpox are coming back, some people don’t think poor kids deserve a school lunch and there are multiple ongoing water crises caused by irresponsible capitalism.

              Capitalism creates more demand on resources across the board, including healthcare. It also increases waste since resources aren’t used to their full potential when it’s not profitable, so yes, there are ways to reduce garbage.