the greatest pressure¶

It's not that wild. Production that society collapses without is, by definition, production that has been subjected to the greatest pressure for efficiency for the longest time. Every social force is arrayed around keeping that labor flowing. There are many ways this plays out: https://t.co/t6dSKwnzo2 First of all, class society emerges around specifically regimenting the most necessary production, such as food. Those who can compel that production and control the distribution of the product are the ones who shape society as it develops, further solidifying that relation. As society develops, productive forces progress, with existing production being constantly made more labor-efficient, thereby freeing up labor for allocation to emergent production. You cannot produce microchips if everyone is busy producing food. The ruling classes are constantly shifting their production toward higher rates of surplus extraction. (This isn't exactly an individual patrician, lord, or capitalist shifting their own production, but rather the shape of the class as a whole changing, piece by piece.) One factor in the freeing up of labor for higher production is through technological advancement; less labor becomes necessary for the same amount of that basal production as the tools and techniques for that production become more efficient and widespread. Another factor in this process is the depression of the power held by those doing that basal production. Maintaining an underclass of precarious workers in those industries allows you to extract more value for less. Slaves, migrants, people making poverty wages, etc. These processes feed into each other. Increased technologization makes it easier to slot anyone into the remaining labor input without needing to invest in high levels of training. Higher efficiency frees up labor to produce that technology. The goal (or rather, the inexorable flow of capital, regardless of individual intent) becomes to relegate as much production as possible to the realm of "unskilled labor," to smooth the way for the steady march toward higher rates of profit. And that starts from the base up. Agriculture goes from requiring 90% of the population to 50%, then 25%, then 10%, with the rest of the working classes moving up the labor hierarchy. That general pattern repeats itself in the next layer of the pyramid, then the next, resulting in ever-more complex production. If you think that would lead to an obscenely top-heavy economy, with the majority of workers working in ever-more "unnecessary" work, and the stuff that keeps society functioning highly vulnerable to disruption, you'd be correct. And that's where imperialism comes in. Among those "higher level" industries are the tools of empire. Global shipping and logistics, military infrastructure, geopolitical maneuvering. The more an empire is able to expand its dominion, the greater the base of the pyramid grows. Those most basal industries that have been most deskilled are the easiest to export to the global south -- so long as the workers there can be maintained as a permanent underclass. Food production, extraction of raw materials, clothes manufacturing, etc. Just like production of agricultural machinery is both made possible by and feeds into the efficiency of food production, the production of the machinery of empire does the same around the world, by ensuring there are always plenty of fish in the global sea of labor. Unskilled labor is not a myth: it's intentional, and integral to the capitalist mode of production. It's how the ruling class expands its power. It's how the labor aristocracy is created and maintained.