[nanny]

The New American Movement (a precursor to the Democratic Socialists of America) published a poster in the 70s that read:

"If you’re unemployed it’s not because there isn’t any work

"Just look around: A housing shortage, crime, pollution; we need better schools and parks. Whatever our needs, they all require work. And as long as we have unsatisfied needs, there’s work to be done.

"So ask yourself, what kind of world has work but no jobs. It’s a world where work is not related to satisfying our needs, a world where work is only related to satisfying the profit needs of business.

"This country was not built by the huge corporations or government bureaucracies. It was built by people who work. And, it is working people who should control the work to be done. Yet, as long as employment is tied to somebody else’s profits, the work won’t get done."

[reedjosh]

Adding to this, institutions make the work between free individuals all but impossible.

If I just want someone to help me plumb a bathroom, they have to have license and insurance, they need to file to be a corporation themselves, they need to file a permit to start the work, they need to have a final inspection, and they have to pay taxes on what I pay them.

On top of this supplies are becoming ever more expensive unless you're a big enough buyer, so the little company or one independent plumber can't even compete with larger companies on cost of materials and tools.

I basically do all my household remodeling myself as the cost is extremely prohibitive.

[mensetmanusman]

Is being a barista work in this mindset?

Or is the idea that we have barista‘s because that is profitable, but it is not profitable to improve infrastructure?

[CleaveIt2Beaver]

It is both work and a job, in this example. But it's an occupied job, where the poster is discussing communal job creation through joint bargaining power rather than a corporate monolith. Your second statement is right on the money.