[jhap]

> For another, it’s going to bias you towards treating, e.g., janitors as subhuman, and that way is the path to a very bad place.

Do you have any more thoughts about this point? In my own life I’ve seen some of my friends with hotshot jobs develop this sort of mentality, and I sort of don’t know what to make of it. I want to be like “this is a toxic attitude to have!” but at the same time I can’t make a better argument than it’s immoral and without janitors we’d all be dead.

[hprotagonist]

I only have moral arguments for moral questions. Certainly the idea that humans, because they are human and for that reason alone, have inherent worth is not exactly new. It is seductively easy to start thinking you're above other people because of what you have, or what you know, or what you can do. It's not true, but a relatively dirty part of ourselves certainly wants it to be.

"The basis for determining the value of human work is not primarily the kind of work being done but the fact that the one who is doing it is a person." [0]

“And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.” [1]

[0] http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/do...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpe_Jugulum

[zests]

A person's job is largely dependent on their own value system. The worth of a person does not correspond to how much that person values career prestige. It is easy to believe the opposite when you value career prestige highly.