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Are you paid to look busy?

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Re: Are you paid to look busy?

#91

Post by ForHackernews »

paulhauggis wrote: post #55
ryandrake wrote: post #22

“We should do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery becau…

This sounds great, but you still need money to survive. This would mean that the few that did work would essentially be supporting the rest of society. Why would I ever want to start a million dollar business if I knew the majority of my earnings would be taken from me by the government to support people that didn't need to do anything?? You don't have to get a crappy job and work for someone you hate for the rest of…

> Why would I ever want to start a million dollar business if I knew the majority of my earnings would be taken from me by the government to support people that didn't need to do anything?

Because you'd still have millions of dollars, obviously!

This is such a weird, sour-grapes style of thinking. Why do you bother running your business today when the government is just going to take X% of the money? Are you really going to take your ball and go home, just to prevent the "unfairness" of somebody else benefiting from your labor?

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face...

Re: Are you paid to look busy?

#92

Post by raverbashing »

hawkharris wrote: post #54

This reminds me of a study focusing on soccer games. It analyzed A) how often players shot goals toward the left, middle and right sides of the net; and B) how often goalies responded by jumping toward the left, middle and right sides. The stats revealed a surprising phenomenon. Though opposing players shot toward each area of the goal evenly — about 33% of the time — goalies jumped toward the left or the right 80-90…

Or: you have to jump if you want to reach a ball kicked on a goal corner

So if you guess that the ball is going to one of the sides, jump

If you don't jump you're defending 1/3 of shoots

(Of course, soccer is more complicated than that - for instance not all shots are perfect, and some are made to trick the goalie especially in penalty shoots - but you get the idea)

Re: Are you paid to look busy?

#93

Post by paulhauggis »

chasing wrote: post #73
paulhauggis wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds great, but you still need money to survive. This would mean that the few that did work would essentially be supporting the rest of society. Why would I ever want to start a million dollar business if I knew the majority of my earnings would be taken from me by the government to support people that didn't need to do anything?? You don't have to get a crappy job and work for someone you hate for the rest of…

You appear to be getting downvoted, but you've struck at the heart of the issue: If we want to do away with meaningless jobs, people will still need resources to survive. And that "one-in-ten-thousand" (or whatever) will need to be taxed very heavily so the wealth can be spread. We can't have all of our financial resources siloed into an increasingly small number of people's wallets. A great benefit to this system wi…

I made a good point..and I wasn't even snarky or mean about it. I was down voted because I differed with someone's opinion.

Silencing trolls is one thing..but silencing the opposition reminds me why need freedom of speech.

Re: Are you paid to look busy?

#94

Post by Artistry121 »

chasing wrote: post #73
paulhauggis wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds great, but you still need money to survive. This would mean that the few that did work would essentially be supporting the rest of society. Why would I ever want to start a million dollar business if I knew the majority of my earnings would be taken from me by the government to support people that didn't need to do anything?? You don't have to get a crappy job and work for someone you hate for the rest of…

You appear to be getting downvoted, but you've struck at the heart of the issue: If we want to do away with meaningless jobs, people will still need resources to survive. And that "one-in-ten-thousand" (or whatever) will need to be taxed very heavily so the wealth can be spread. We can't have all of our financial resources siloed into an increasingly small number of people's wallets. A great benefit to this system wi…

Libertarians would actually be against many policies designed to keep people in jobs - pushed by many of both major parties today. In fact full employment is a goal mostly supported by policies and politicians decidedly anti-free-market.

Voluntary giving and charity and voluntary communal groups could easily grow. The notion that taxes are the only way to spread wealth is flawed. The nuclear family is already one example almost everyone can relate to where one or two people support a whole - in some cases old and young alike.

It will take social change to make a less work based society work - forcing people into that route is silly and a long step on the road to totalitarianism.

Libertarianism is the opposite of might-makes-right. Libertarianism is the view that coercive power should be incredibly limited in scope and that an individual's decisions and contracts are what makes right.

Re: Are you paid to look busy?

#95

Post by albemuth »

Roboprog wrote: post #15

Is my job a bullshit job? No, but... I'm miserably reminded every week when I do my TPS^H^H^H timesheet just what proportion of my job is bullshit activity that I have to get through so that I can get to the part where I am actually going to work on something that will matter to someone. ("Look! I actually spent almost 10 hours this week [designing/] writing [/testing] code!") Knowing what needs doing is of course im…

My employer pays for my internet connection but requires you to file an expense report, I never do because it feels like part of the job responsibilities to get a fraction of the salary is to file the damn thing. I'm basically giving my employer a discount in order to avoid paperwork.

Re: Are you paid to look busy?

#97

Post by ufo »

pdkl95 wrote: post #51
zanny wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue (as would most of the free software community) the creation of proprietary software is entirely bullshit. Because you have to eventually reinvent it with either permissive or copyleft licenses to just avoid the huge black hole that is legal bullshit and bureaucracy around licensing rights to a number that is not even scarce once its made. And until it is foss, you are just denying the users their freedoms t…

While I'd agree with that sentiment for most sold software, there's another aspect to consider. There are some jobs that don't ever really go away, and software is one of them. It's similar at times to the traditional "trades" such being a plumber or electrician. So while "proprietary" (i.e. closed source or limiting who has access to it) may not be the precise description, a LOT of software is (and will be) "in-hous…

My guess is that the ratio of custom to glue stuff should be more constant over time. As old custom stuff becomes standard, it simply enables people to start tackling harder problems and create more custom stuff.

Re: Are you paid to look busy?

#98

Post by desas »

glesica wrote: post #31
LeafyGreenbriar wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, how are you able to work as little as you do?

To be fair, I worked nearly full-time for several years (37.5 hours per week, government job which also had a ton of paid time off) and then I've been back in school for the last couple years, which pays me a stipend. I also work part-time as a software developer. But, basically, I just don't have a ton of expenses (I don't own a car, I have lived in cheaper areas, I have no children). I will likely end up with a ful…

What is full time in the US? I've worked 35 and 37.5 hour jobs and considered both full time. Neither are unusual in the UK.

Of course being in IT the actual hours worked are usually more than that.

Re: Are you paid to look busy?

#99

Post by Artistry121 »

jamesisaac wrote: post #85
paulhauggis wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds great, but you still need money to survive. This would mean that the few that did work would essentially be supporting the rest of society. Why would I ever want to start a million dollar business if I knew the majority of my earnings would be taken from me by the government to support people that didn't need to do anything?? You don't have to get a crappy job and work for someone you hate for the rest of…

> Why would I ever want to start a million dollar business if I knew the majority of my earnings would be taken from me by the government to support people that didn't need to do anything?? Are you suggesting that the only motivation to start a business is to "make millions and keep millions"? What about: - Making the world a better place - Improving the lives of others - The personal satisfaction of building things…

If all three of those are strong motivators then the government would not need to get involved with charity and welfare either - because individuals could get satisfaction from charity and providing opportunity for others by making the world a better place, improving the lives of others and gaining the personal satisfaction from helping solve a problem.

Re: Are you paid to look busy?

#100

Post by chasing »

Artistry121 wrote: post #94
chasing wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You appear to be getting downvoted, but you've struck at the heart of the issue: If we want to do away with meaningless jobs, people will still need resources to survive. And that "one-in-ten-thousand" (or whatever) will need to be taxed very heavily so the wealth can be spread. We can't have all of our financial resources siloed into an increasingly small number of people's wallets. A great benefit to this system wi…

Libertarians would actually be against many policies designed to keep people in jobs - pushed by many of both major parties today. In fact full employment is a goal mostly supported by policies and politicians decidedly anti-free-market. Voluntary giving and charity and voluntary communal groups could easily grow. The notion that taxes are the only way to spread wealth is flawed. The nuclear family is already one exa…

> Voluntary giving and charity and voluntary communal groups could easily grow. The notion that taxes are the only way to spread wealth is flawed.

Except now you've created a situation where only the wealthy get to choose society's direction. We need taxes so that even those without financial resources can have a say in what our collective money funds. This is made even more extreme if only a small part of the population is doing work with immediate financial reward.

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