There is definitely such a thing as jobs that take lots of book learning and tests to get, and jobs anyone can get by applying for them. This semantic fight of "No such thing as unskilled labor" is just going to make people call it something new and politically correct, but it won't change reality.
It's not semantics, it's just refusing to use an inaccurate name. Just because anyone can get a job doesn't mean anyone can excel at it. Why are you suggesting we should all consent to the lie that unskilled labor exists?
Which is why everyone is an engineer these days. Guy with a mop? Sanitation engineer. Guy who sells stuff all day? Sales engineer. Help desk? No, systems engineer.
When one has spent half a day learning to pack boxes, then a week learning to do it quick enough, I'll grant they have acquired a skill. Probably not a transferable skill, but definitely a skill
Citation needed. Please tell me the name of the people, the date they invented the term, the justification they offered for the term, and private letters that indicate this conspiracy.
Take as much time as you need to provide these four pieces of data that would back up your claim.
Fine. Maybe an analogy will help. If you say X = 2 and I say that it does not, does that mean I am saying it is equal to 3? You made an assertion, I reject your assertion, that doesn't mean anything else. A does not imply B in this case.
Unskilled labor does not mean it should be done for free. No one is saying that, except you. Because that strawman is able to defeat.
Work is activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result. Something unskilled isn't work. Not sure what's so hard to understand.
I have a master's degree, but I can honestly say working at Wendy's took just as much skill as what I do now. "People" who use terms like "unskilled labor" are part of the problem. There's no such thing as "unskilled labor." I'm agreeing with you.
If you can master it in a week it isn't a skill. You are redefining the word to make it so broad it is useless to make some ideological point. Also given what I see with Amazon boxes I doubt they can in fact pack better than I can.
Jesus who are you trying to impress talking like that? Putting shit in a box is not skilled labor in the sense being a plumber or an accountant is. Just because I can't define the line exactly does not mean there is no line and pointing out that my reasoning isn't perfect doesn't make your reasoning correct.
It is unskilled labor because words are defined by consensus.
The line is imaginary, and division by any line is not particularly natural or useful.
What consensus are you imagining? I cannot recall being asked to offer an opinion for any consensus.
Who participated in constructing the consensus? What processes are generally available to challenge the entrenched consensus, or to direct the development of a new consensus?
Which groups have supported such a consensus more strongly than others?