Andy F wrote:
>
>
> How does this hold up in the face of deskilling? I have no problem
> believing it for a job needing the slightest bit of brainpower, but
> when you're just being a cog in the machine....
You greatly overestimate how absolute the division of mental and manual labor can be. 'They' have neveer yet succeeded in creating a job which (a) needs a person to perform it and (b) needs that person ONLY as a cog. Human intelligence is required in the most cog-like positions: hence the immense power of "work to rule" by "unskilled" workers. ALL jobs require more or less constant mental input.
Carrol
P.S. In a recent thread "auto mechanic" was given as an example of "manual labor"; granted that job usually requires, incidentally, quite a bit of manual effort, but it should be primarily listed as mental labor -- and this has been the case since the earliest days of the auto. Computerized systems in cars are reducing but not really eliminating the intellectual demands of the job.