Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables, worker. Almost sounds like the men themselves.
That was seventy years ago. Then a whole generation went by and the very same condition was called human resource. Four syllables now. Takes a little longer to say.
Doesn’t seem to hurt as much. Human is a nicer word than worker. WORKER! Human Resource.
Then we had the financial crisis, 2008. Michael Burry was riding high by that time, and the very same condition was called labor capital. Hey, were up to five syllables now! And the humanity has been squeezed completely out of the phrase.
It’s totally sterile now. Labor capital. Sounds like something that might happen to your car. Then of course, came the COVID pandemic, which has only been over for about two or three years, and thanks to the lies and deceits surrounding that pandemic, I guess it’s no surprise that the very same condition was called lower value human capital.
They quit calling them that years ago, now they are “lower value human capital.” https://fortune.com/2026/05/26/standard-chartered-ceo-bill-winters-apologizes-calling-some-workers-lower-value-human-capital-ai-push/
Shoehorned that together