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Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

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Re: Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

#81

Post by ethanbond »

anovikov wrote: post #40
ethanbond wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The data is completely unambiguous: housing prices are (and have been) rising much, much, much faster than wages.

Well, this is simply not the case. Inflation adjusted housing prices per square foot has been flat for the last 50 years with slight fluctuations. Houses increased in footage, so inflation adjusted house prices have been flat vs wages (that grew). Perception of things being different is simply because everyone and their dog is trying to fit into the few most attractive areas where prices have indeed skyrocketed. U.S.…

Oh duh, why didn't I think about purchasing just a quarter of a unit? Just need to decide if I want a bathroom and a bedroom, or a bedroom and a kitchen, I suppose. Maybe a bathroom and kitchen is the optimal move and then I can sleep inside a kitchen cabinet and charge my next-room neighbors to use my kitchen.

Re: Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

#82

Post by hotnfresh »

RecycledEle wrote: post #22

Give us Wednesday off, not Friday. Then we can rest between 2-day work spurts.

1) Friday or Monday are more likely to be days off anyway, so you’re asking (slightly) less by asking for one of those.

2) Lots of people really like having longer stretches off, as it opens more options for things you can do with the time off.

3) If kids are off school, even for a non-holiday (teacher in-service, say) it’s often a Friday, so that’s a nice day for parents to have off.

TL;DR there’s a pretty strong case for Friday and a somewhat less strong case for Monday. I expect employers and co-workers alike to prefer either of those over Wednesday.

Re: Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

#83

Post by doctorwho42 »

Tiktaalik wrote: post #9

In my experience working at a 4DWW company I saw the opposite. The happiest were the oldest, most established workers, because they had already ticked off all so many life goals, had a house, a dog, kids, etc and so less money and more time was great. In contrast the youngest workers had no stable housing, and wanted more money more than they wanted time, because they wanted an ability to buy themselves some of those…

"so maybe this all just shows how important affordable housing is and how it eventually starts to Trump all other issues."

Of course it does, and why anyone would think otherwise has baffled me my entire adult life.

(1) in any survival class, for me boyscouts, you learn that first priority in any survival setting is shelter.

(2) anyone living in the US in the last 60 years and has paid any attention to the homeless know how fast your life falls apart when you don't have a home. Countless stories of someone having a traumatic life event, and then being evicted with their entire life being tossed out on the curb by an uncaring landlord

(3) a shelter is safety, it is engrained in ourselves that we feel safer and more secure when we have a dedicated place that is permanent.

So of course shelter/affordable housing trumps almost everything else, it always has and always will. It is surprising how society has been, seemingly, brainwashed with the idea that housing has to be (a) an investment vehicle and (b) done for obscene profits.

Re: Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

#84

Post by anovikov »

jonahrd wrote: post #57
anovikov wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, this is simply not the case. Inflation adjusted housing prices per square foot has been flat for the last 50 years with slight fluctuations. Houses increased in footage, so inflation adjusted house prices have been flat vs wages (that grew). Perception of things being different is simply because everyone and their dog is trying to fit into the few most attractive areas where prices have indeed skyrocketed. U.S.…

Urbanisation is a trend across the entire globe for many more reasons than just wanting to live in a few attractive areas. And it's absolutely necessary for us to urbanize instead of the wasteful way we use our land, in order to avoid the impending climate, biodiversity, and energy crises. Anyway --- with this square footage argument. End of the day, I'm still priced out of a house, whether it'd be a big one or a sma…

https://infogram.com/1pqdpn20vkmlelcq6qx7jzwz9pf00g9xnq5

https://www.supermoney.com/inflation-adjusted-home-prices/

as for your link - easy, what's understood by "house" in Luxembourg is usually a "Soviet style apartment block". You need to be a billionaire to own a typical US-sized single family house there, these are passed down the generations from the people who were rich 100+ years ago (but granted, they are usually not built of shit).

https://www.numbeo.com/property-investment/rankings_by_count...

This rating assumes same housing everywhere, not just "average house in a given country". In this case, easily U.S. can be among top 5, because being very rich, and as people say here in the same thread "everything apart from housing and healthcare is cheap anyway", a bigger chunk of expenses can go there.

By another metric - "mortgage vs income" - U.S. is 6th best out of 106 large countries. 50% of the countries (that is, omitting 1/4 worst and 1/4 best) are between 1.7x and 5x worse.

Housing is much more accessible in the U.S. than in just about any country, even if you correct by per capita GDP, that is, it is more accessible than the per capita GDP would imply.

Re: Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

#85

Post by indianSummer »

RecycledEle wrote: post #22

Give us Wednesday off, not Friday. Then we can rest between 2-day work spurts.

This is a fun move to pull for the reasons you stated but also because it surprises those who didn’t consider it as an option when selecting a schedule. Downside- we need long breaks to truly relax and calm down. Not much resetting you can do in a day but with three there’s more opportunity.

Re: Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

#86

Post by epaulson »

Euphorbium wrote: post #52

Should be fighting for a 3 day work week by now, not a 4.

During spring of 2020 at the very beginning of COVID my (100K+ person) company furloughed all of us for about 12 days, but most of us had to take it as 2 days of unpaid time off per week, so we effectively had 3 day work weeks. I have to say that felt a little too short and it always felt like it was a scramble to get things done. 4 day weeks feel a lot more comfortable.

Re: Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

#87

Post by doctorwho42 »

SamuelAdams wrote: post #21
jt2190 wrote: post #2

Source for the article: “Younger workers want a 4-day workweek — and some would give up remote work or higher pay for it” https://www.bankrate.com/personal-finance/younger-workers-wa... > Close to 8 in 10 Gen X and baby boomer workers (or 78 percent for those between the ages of 43 and 77 combined) support a four-day workweek. > But younger workers indicate they’re willing to go to greater lengths for the schedule, a…

If they (or you, or anyone) want a 4 day work week, then why not pick a profession that allows it? Most healthcare related fields work in 12 hour shifts, so working 3-4 days a week is the normal standard. Not every professional job is an office job 9-5.

Because the implication is that a 4 day work week would be 8 hour days. Not 4 days with 40+ hours.

Re: Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

#88

Post by blitz_skull »

Tiktaalik wrote: post #9

In my experience working at a 4DWW company I saw the opposite. The happiest were the oldest, most established workers, because they had already ticked off all so many life goals, had a house, a dog, kids, etc and so less money and more time was great. In contrast the youngest workers had no stable housing, and wanted more money more than they wanted time, because they wanted an ability to buy themselves some of those…

These companies are so rare, why wouldn't the younger workers just go find a job with higher pay and less time off? It's not like they're being forced to work at a 4-Day Work Week company... They're kind of unicorns to find in the first place.

Re: Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

#89

Post by tspike »

slashdev wrote: post #48
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #7

Young people don't want to work hard because there's little incentive. No matter how hard you work, unless you're in the top 5%, you're far priced out of most places most people want to live. You can afford everything comfortably beside housing & health care (which you don't need much of when you're young) on a relatively low wage in the US. So you've pretty much given up on housing. What's the point in working hard?

It's not for everybody, but if you can find a way to not play the rigged game, you can get ahead. I moved from a high cost of living city in North America to Latin America. I bought a two floor penthouse overlooking the ocean for less than the price of a two bedroom apartment back where I came from. My mortgage is -$2000 / month. That's right, negative $2000 because I save the full mortgage payment plus an extra $200…

Sure, and now you’re inflicting the same problems on the local population who don’t have the option of geographic arbitrage.

Re: Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

#90

Post by jhanschoo »

boringg wrote: post #53
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #7

Young people don't want to work hard because there's little incentive. No matter how hard you work, unless you're in the top 5%, you're far priced out of most places most people want to live. You can afford everything comfortably beside housing & health care (which you don't need much of when you're young) on a relatively low wage in the US. So you've pretty much given up on housing. What's the point in working hard?

To be clear - you can read the crystal ball much like the whole generation in terms of whats going to happen in the future? I'm glad everyone knows how the future is written, I for one don't know and am quite curious.

Of course you have predictions and some things are more probable than others. I'm pretty sure that fertility is going to keep dropping and extreme weather is going to get worse in the mid-term future.
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