Let me just quit my day job and learn the electrical code to install that new breaker panel I need. Gotta brush up on the gas fitting code too cause my furnace needs work. Then ill drive myself to the hospital where i will be my own nurse and my own surgeon.
The ability to learn is also linked with time, energy, and accessibility to resources.
Not everyone is capable of learning or figuring it out.
Think about childhood dream jobs like rock star or astronaut.
Rock star: You need musical talent and stage presence, enough to entertain lots of people with your music. Me, I can sing in the shower and play some simple tunes on an instrument, but I'd starve if I tried to make it as a simple busker.
Astronaut: NASA requires a master's degree in a STEM field, at least 1000 hours as a jet pilot, and that you pass a physical. Not everyone is capable of earning a master's degree. Not everyone will be capable of learning to fly planes. And the physical -- ever heard of a blind astronaut? Or how about conditions where your bones are brittle? Hop on the rocket - SNAP! Oops, broken legs. Etc.
No, for all jobs there is only limited supply. If more people want the job than there are jobs available, some of the people who want the job must necessarily end up not getting the job.
But really…. Do you, or annyone else, really want to be doing it? If you had the resources not to be and could do anything else like travel, spending time with loved ones, or even just sitting in your own filth, would you choose to do it?
What if you’re a professional burglar? Then, you’re doing something other people don’t want to do themselves, nor do they want you to do it either. The society doesn’t need burglars, but some people do it anyway.
If you're a professional burglar, then you have bills to pay so you'll be taking on jobs for clients or a fence. Therefore, you're doing the job your client/fence doesn't want to do themselves.
Also, while society might not need burglars, it sure is good at creating them.
I think then the secret to happiness would be to remain an amateur burglar, motivated by your passion for crime.
Do the job that needs to be done. That is how a lot of businesses get started, keeping an eye out for a need to fill. I used to go to my job and avoid doing work but eventually the boss tracked me down and gives me the shit job nobody wants to do. As I've grown wiser I realized if I take the initiative I can pick the job I want and some other sap gets stuck with the shit job.
Perhaps but someone's going to have to clean that toilet one way or the other.
The primary issue here is that there is a societal disparity between the toilet cleaner and let's say a CEO or a doctor or something along those lines. But there shouldn't be the doctor/ceo and toilet cleaner should get paid the same or there abouts in any case.
Cleaning a toilet should be just as important as heart surgery or running a multinational business.
If you have the owner of the business he can only perform so many tasks at once therefore that person must hire other people to perform more tasks.
Wanting or not wanting has nothing to do with performing jobs.
If there are jobs that people don't want to do therefore there must be jobs that people do want to do... What about those people? How do they fit in with your paradigm?
I worked as an Outsource Manager at a couple of game companies (in addition to working for many years as a game artist). I outsourced mostly art asset creation, mostly to cheaper countries. It was kind of bittersweet, since it was clear to me and the artists at our studio that we were outsourcing really enjoyable work, work that our internal artists would rather have done than spend some of their time reviewing the cool art stuff these outsource artists created. But doing this allowed the studio to make a bigger, better game than our limited size team could do on their own.
So basically, I disagree with your premise. There are many sorts of jobs, for many reasons.
It's not even about the task. I sure there is some one who would like to do the task but it's never just that simple. You can't just be an astronaut, you have to; goto school; be exceptional; etc.
(Edit: Looks like... my Firefox is blocking this image from just loading (it thinks it's a "tracker", I guess... which maybe it is) even though it's a valid image tag. Not sure how many viewers are affected. I'll just link to the image instead.)