But where do we draw the line on “self-sufficiency” and knowing outdated “common skills”?
Knowing how to ride a horse was pretty essential in the past, knitting your own clothes, using the aforementioned loom to weave your own fabric. Perhaps forging your own metal tools?
Nope, nope and nope.
Horses were ******* expensive and having one for riding was even more so, ie Ferrari money.
Weaving was done by weavers, forging was done by blacksmiths, and all manner of work was done by those who gave their trades to our surnames (Taylor, Thatcher, Cooper, etc etc). Only those who couldn't afford such services had to do it themselves or go without, and most services were sensibly priced.
However, as time progressed and education improved, practical skills became more accessible to people who could then do certain things themselves, particularly as trade guilds lost a lot of their power. Many people learned 'trade secrets' off their relatives, which is where you started to get women doing the Man-Jobs even though the guilds did not admit them for training.
A combination of advancing technology and a couple of World Wars made even more of that accessible. It culminated in the whole DIY culture, once more striking the balance between DIY capability and tradesman affordability.
For many those are just as irrelevant as many of the skills people are moaning about the younger generation not knowing how to do, while completely ignoring the fact that many younger people have replaced those skills they rarely/never need with skills that they actually do need day to day.
They only 'don't need' those skills because they don't go places where they'd need 'em. Kinda like any of the skills used in camping - Don't leave your house, don't need them... although saying that, I have used some of mine during power cuts.
If someone has never needed to change a plug in 30 years why do they need to know how to do it?
You're absolutely right.
Haven't ever needed it, so obviously never will.
Exactly the mentality that has our company up the creek. Good one.
What if the time it took to learn that was used instead to learn to code? Which is more relevant in today’s world?
Pfft. What use is coding?
You don't need coding. You need management. Everyone is a manager these days. Once the code is written, that's it and it's all done by people in China. You don't need coders. You need management and makers of reality TV shows. That's what society is today. That and salespeople, if you're not smart enough to be a manager.
You can’t learn everything, you need to prioritise. There’s little point prioritising skills that are just not needed now over skills that are potentially needed on a daily basis.
You should be able to maintain your own home and your own life, even at a basic level. Paying other people to do everything for you just means you're overpaid... especially if you then whine about the workmanship of a now-dying trade.
Older people didn’t learn to drive, because they didn’t need to. They prioritised other skills instead. That doesn’t mean they aren’t as skilled in general, just skilled in different things.
Young people don't need to learn driving, either. No-one who lives in a city needs to drive, because public transport is so good these days and so well connected.... (!!)
And yet, it was always the old people telling me I really ought to have my licence by now...
TBH this argument is just an argument against progress. If every new generation learned everything the older generation knew then they would never have time to learn new skills and progress society.
Half of this is NOT progress though.... unless you live your life by EA and Ubisoft business practice, ie coming up with new things for the sake of it, rather than because they actually make life better.
A good percentage of what you think is progress is just solutions to problems that didn't exist, for the purposes of making money.
I can't believe there are people who consider 'washing up' to be some kind of skill that should never be lost by future generations.
Find something that isn't dishwasher safe and get a future generation to hand-wash it, then... !!
and I tend to collect the water that's ran until it's hot to either drink or rinse with so as not to be wasteful.
Energy costs to the Planet the same everywhere on Earth. It isn't surrounded by borders and areas where it is more expensive or cheaper.