Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Billionaires Want People Back to Work. Employees Aren’t So Sure

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 185 posts

Re: Billionaires Want People Back to Work. Employees Aren’t So Sure

#61

Post by empath75 »

TheBlight wrote: post #26
asdfman123 wrote: post #7

Okay, so if we let the infection rip, what's their plan to deal with the massive wave of people suffocating on their own phlegm? Dig a trench?

I know this won't be a popular take but I haven't seen any compelling data to indicate what we're dealing with is any more deadly than a cold. No one has any idea how many people have been infected by this virus. It is assuredly many many more than current tests have revealed as the only people being tested are healthcare workers and at-risk individuals. I wouldn't be surprised if over a million people in the U.S. ha…

It’s not going to be a popular take because it’s ignorant. It’s crushing health care systems wherever it spreads. The common cold doesn’t do that.

It’s possible the fatality rate is slightly lower than is commonly reported and the infection rate is slightly higher, but that’s not going to make a tremendous difference in terms of the number of deaths or in the impact it has on the health care system.

Re: Billionaires Want People Back to Work. Employees Aren’t So Sure

#62

Post by happierlook »

TheBlight wrote: post #26
asdfman123 wrote: post #7

Okay, so if we let the infection rip, what's their plan to deal with the massive wave of people suffocating on their own phlegm? Dig a trench?

I know this won't be a popular take but I haven't seen any compelling data to indicate what we're dealing with is any more deadly than a cold. No one has any idea how many people have been infected by this virus. It is assuredly many many more than current tests have revealed as the only people being tested are healthcare workers and at-risk individuals. I wouldn't be surprised if over a million people in the U.S. ha…

Madrid is literally turning ice skating rinks into temporary morgues because they can't store all the dead bodies: https://news.yahoo.com/madrid-ice-rink-morgue-coronavirus-11...

edit: And South Korea has tested 345k+ and only 9k have come back positive: https://www.cdc.go.kr/board/board.es?mid=&bid=0030

Re: Billionaires Want People Back to Work. Employees Aren’t So Sure

#63

Post by [deleted] »

chungy wrote: post #14
cushychicken wrote: post #8

What if, at the tail end of all this, a bunch of people find that they've tried remote work and decided: "Hey - this fucking rules! " In part because they've realized that they can complete their core work duties in less time, with less distractions, and zero commuting. Maybe - just maybe - this could be the unplug that helps people prioritize the things that they enjoy over their work. I recognize that's a viewpoint…

> In part because they've realized that they can complete their core work duties in less time, with less distractions, and zero commuting. The first two depend _very_ heavily on both your home and office environments. It is certainly not true for myself.

[deleted]

Re: Billionaires Want People Back to Work. Employees Aren’t So Sure

#64

Post by thedance »

TheBlight wrote: post #26
asdfman123 wrote: post #7

Okay, so if we let the infection rip, what's their plan to deal with the massive wave of people suffocating on their own phlegm? Dig a trench?

I know this won't be a popular take but I haven't seen any compelling data to indicate what we're dealing with is any more deadly than a cold. No one has any idea how many people have been infected by this virus. It is assuredly many many more than current tests have revealed as the only people being tested are healthcare workers and at-risk individuals. I wouldn't be surprised if over a million people in the U.S. ha…

They've got an ice rink in Madrid piled with corpses. Pretty sure that never happened from the cold.

Re: Billionaires Want People Back to Work. Employees Aren’t So Sure

#65

Post by cultus »

kvee wrote: post #31

This is a generally unpopular opinion, and I don't know that I agree with it, but it does appear that the billionaires might be logically right from an ethical perspective. It might cost more QALYs (quality-adjusted life years) to have an economic recession the size of 2008 than to have millions die from COVID-19: https://medium.com/@benfinn/coronavirus-how-much-is-a-life-w...

You are making the very false assumption that we have a choice between deaths and economic collapse. Like it or not, we are seeing faster growth rates than Spain. With our awful response, we could be easily heading for 2+ million deaths if hospitals get overloaded as expected. Workers will not show up anyway because it is dangerous for them and their families (this is already happening). This will cause the economy to collapse at least as bad.

Sacrificing grandma to Mammon is not the answer.

Re: Billionaires Want People Back to Work. Employees Aren’t So Sure

#66

Post by rlayton2 »

Traster wrote: post #41
chungy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In part because they've realized that they can complete their core work duties in less time, with less distractions, and zero commuting. The first two depend _very_ heavily on both your home and office environments. It is certainly not true for myself.

Absolutely, I'm getting very tired of the constant hacker news posts telling me that working from home is the future, that I'm getting twice as much done in half the time. I'll tell you what I have, I have chronic back pain from my uncomfortable dining room chairs and chronic anger at the fact I can't get timely answers to my quesitons. Some people like working from home, fine, but for many of us it's just not right.

Getting a good home-office setup is critical here. In my previous house I had a separate office and enjoyed working from home. In my current house we do not have a separate room (adding it now) and I can't get anything done there (doesn't help that the kids are home from school).

On the response times, if your office is one of constant interruption for that, then you can simply just have video conferencing on all day rather than just for meetings. This helps with "Hey Bob, what's the answer to this?". It has the same level of distraction as being in the office and just interrupting each other all the time. (which is awful for some, and useful for others)

Re: Billionaires Want People Back to Work. Employees Aren’t So Sure

#67

Post by randlet »

JshWright wrote: post #28
cushychicken wrote: post #8

What if, at the tail end of all this, a bunch of people find that they've tried remote work and decided: "Hey - this fucking rules! " In part because they've realized that they can complete their core work duties in less time, with less distractions, and zero commuting. Maybe - just maybe - this could be the unplug that helps people prioritize the things that they enjoy over their work. I recognize that's a viewpoint…

I think it's likely the exact opposite will happen. People are being thrown into seriously sub-optimal remote working experiences, and their productivity is likely to suffer for it. This will result in companies being less likely to consider remote working a viable path.

I tend to agree unfortunately. I've spent 10+ years working remotely and the past two weeks have been brutal productivity wise now that my wife is working from home and both kids are home too. As a self-employed individual, it's worrying to me what the next 6 months of this will do to my output.

edit: and I feel bad for worrying because we're in a much better position than many others.

Re: Billionaires Want People Back to Work. Employees Aren’t So Sure

#68

Post by HarryHirsch »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #37
317070 wrote: post #10

I'm using my quarantine time to read Piketty's "Capital in the 21st century". I'm actually pretty sure I'm _not_ going back to work if it risks my health. And it is obvious that the rentiers of our economy want the non-rentiers to go back to work. The rentiers actually have little to lose. The article states they might get sick, but if we're being realistic, they are very well sheltered against the collapse of the he…

Appropriate disaster reading :-). Others have pointed out how the black plague killed off a lot of serfs and really put a dent in feudalism because of it. It is all well and good to own a thousand hectares of land but without the serfs to work it, its just a nice park to go walking in.

Trouble is, that nowadays the serfs are in China. In the Middle Ages, servants would flee a lord that was too harsh. The Church and the towns with their rising merchant class would be another way out.

Instead we have healthcare tied to the job and the tech hiring cartel. Where is the revolution?

Re: Billionaires Want People Back to Work. Employees Aren’t So Sure

#69

Post by cairo_x »

oulu2006 wrote: post #6

This shouldn't be surprising to anyone. Billionaires are billionaires because of the extreme disproportionate gains by the few at the expense of thousands/millions. They're used to seeing the many slave away for their interests. Not seeing that happening now is throwing their view of proper world order into chaos and they're not used to be back in a position without control.

That is the what lies at the rotten heart of capitalism.

I mean, people say a lot of horseshit about what capitalism is or isn't ("I'm a capitalist because I'm for making money and profits.", etc), or creating a fake context where the only alternative is ownership by the state.

But at the end of the day it's about the worker employer relationship, period, end of story.

Post reply on HN