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Ok, and would you agree that compared to some point in the past, a smaller percentage of men is necessary in the 21st century to do the vital work of society such as supplying food and maintaining infrastructure?
Certainly, given the employment-population ratio, but be aware that separating out the vital work from the non-vital work is extremely difficult. Part of this is I'm not sure if the question is whether men's labor is essential or whether a person's labor is essential. With society in a Malthusian state, all labor is essential for survival. The Industrial Revolution got us out of that, but didn't change (or perhaps even bent towards men) the relative necessity of men's labor versus women's.
Ok, I'm not sure what we are arguing over then. The claim made was this:
I take this to mean that as a result of technology, an individual man's labor is not as valuable as it once was. While it may be true that men's labor (as a group) is more valuable than ever, there's no men's union. In other words, men don't negotiate as a group and therefore individual men are in a much worse bargaining position than in the past. Do you disagree?
Men are in a worse bargaining position because women's labor and confiscated fruits of labor can substitute for men's labor; that's more New Deal/Great Society than Industrial Revolution.
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