Make me some art RIGHT NOW. Paint me a portrait in oil-based acrylic. 

What? You don’t know that acrylics are water based, not oil based? Gee, that’s something only a skilled painter might know.    

Or instead compose me a song. Design packaging for this new product we’re launching in 10 days. Make me a webpage with eye-popping graphics you didn’t steal from another site.

Artists do all that. In fact, every manufactured thing you touch passed through the hands of a skilled artist at some point.

FAST FOOD! If fast food is ‘unskilled’ then why does Wendys, McDonalds (et al) expend time on training employees? Surely if any asshole off the street could do the work they can just slip right in there and start slinging happy meals on day one, right? 

Do you know the correct EH/OSHA-approved way to wash your hands? Do it wrong and you are literally violating the law. 

Quick: what do the symptoms of Hepatitis-A look like?  

Or let’s talk janitorial services. Do YOU think you can clean an entire floor of an office building in the allotted time? Where does the trash go? The recycling? How do you get ahold of the waste removal company when the dumpsters are inexplicably full at 4am? Whom do you call? What’s the account number? Is this even your job to worry about? If the dumpsters are full where do you put a night’s worth of collected trash?

What do you do with hazardous waste you might encounter, if you’re cleaning (say) an industrial workspace? Dispose of it incorrectly and that’s a crime.

What’s the procedure for when you encounter a trespasser in a secure building where supposedly nobody but you is working? Can you identify a fake or expired employee badge? Are you supposed to? Your training probably covered that. 

How much would we have to pay you, dear @ithinkthatthismustbetheplace, to deal with a seriously clogged toilet? Shit-smeared walls, standing waste water, the entire place trashed as if it was 3am after a frat party? You have less than an hour to return that restroom to pristine condition. And no, building services is not going to help you.  

You don’t think that requires skill? 

The idea of “skilled” or “unskilled” labor is inherently classist, and misses the fucking point anyway. All labor has dignity, whether you THINK it’s “skilled” or not, and all people deserve to live comfortably, whether they’re able to work or not.