Great writeup. It seems like a strange variant of the broken windows fallacy to imply that workers need to be shuttling to and from work and spending money on brick and mortar restaurants and stores. Of course remote workers will have extra spending money that's still going into the economy, whether that's delivery services mentioned in the article, local restaurants in their personal time, etc.
Is remote work bad for the economy?
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Re: Is remote work bad for the economy?
#12I don't know if it's bad for the economy. It's certainly made my world smaller in a way probably not experienced by my parents for example.
On a weekly basis, ranked by frequency I see - my wife, my dog, my mailman, and the attendant at the gas station. Past that I can't quote a regular person I interact with on weekly basis.
Re: Is remote work bad for the economy?
#13i’ve been working remotely for a decade and i’ve never been happier. i also suspect that the population being happier is no doubt bad for corporate profits.
I think you should consider more than your own happiness, we're talking about the economy, this includes local markets, hairdressers, restaurants, municipal areas, parks, etc. There is a pull that cities have, that includes being in close proximity to people who earn a bit more, greater foot traffic, activities, and shops, among millions of other things I guess if you want to sum up everyone else who was a part of th…
Uhh... nobody stops going to the barber just because they work from home.
Re: Is remote work bad for the economy?
#14The author talks about three data points:
1. Is there less restaurant business?
2. Does it hurt city real estate?
3. People spend more time with family.
I'm much more interested in other points about how remote work has an impact on the economy.
* How do cities and states attract well paid remote workers? Who are the winners and losers of this transition.
* How does remote work impact wages? A programmer in Nashville was probably paid less than one in San Fransisco. How is remote work impacting that discrepancy?
* How is remote work impacting residential real estate? Are home owner rates climbing as people flee the expensive cities? How is it impacting which homes are more desirable?
* How is remote work impacting energy usage?
* How is remote work impacting in office jobs for the same type of work? Are in office jobs paying a premium for labor over remote? Do employers see the increased investment as paying off? Do investors?
Re: Is remote work bad for the economy?
#15i’ve been working remotely for a decade and i’ve never been happier. i also suspect that the population being happier is no doubt bad for corporate profits.
I think you should consider more than your own happiness, we're talking about the economy, this includes local markets, hairdressers, restaurants, municipal areas, parks, etc. There is a pull that cities have, that includes being in close proximity to people who earn a bit more, greater foot traffic, activities, and shops, among millions of other things I guess if you want to sum up everyone else who was a part of th…
When I went remote, the markets, hairdressers, restaurants close to my office lost a customer, and the markets, hairdressers, restaurants close to my home gained a customer. So no net impact to the overall economy.
Re: Is remote work bad for the economy?
#16I don't care what it does to the economy. The only people against remote work are middle managers fearing for their future and building owners afraid of losing out on rent money. I have been working remotely for 5 years and I will retire and live in a cardboard box before I commute and work in an office again.
> middle managers fearing for their future and building owners afraid of losing out on rent money
You forget the business owners who fear they'll lose direction of the work.
It's not so much whether you put in the hours at home, but whether your work is directed towards a common goal.
Remote work requires a higher degree of communication, and some business owners don't possess the skill or interest to maintain out-of-office communication.
Re: Is remote work bad for the economy?
#17The author's answer to the title question seems to be: No. Which I agree with. If the answer was "Yes" however, I would question if that's even a bad thing to begin with. If our economy is reliant on people driving to an office and spending their money at a restaurant, then our economy is pretty terrible to begin with.
Spending money at restaurants is great, way better than everybody sitting at home eating their own lunches. I suspect massive adoption of restaurants would be more efficient too, if we cared about that primarily.
Inner city areas full of people chatting in restaurants and cafes at lunchtime and after work are the best.
> Then you get these articles about how unhealthy life is in the city. You know; mobile phone tumours - far more likely in the city. Well you know what, so is everything else! Including sex, coffee and conversation. - Dylan Moran
Re: Is remote work bad for the economy?
#18I don't care what it does to the economy. The only people against remote work are middle managers fearing for their future and building owners afraid of losing out on rent money. I have been working remotely for 5 years and I will retire and live in a cardboard box before I commute and work in an office again.
Middle managers will be needed more, not less.
This is absolutely true. Their job is harder too. It’s senior managers who take pleasure in people being around them having making back room discussions that can’t imagine a different way of working that are driving this. They are about to become structurally unemployable.
Re: Is remote work bad for the economy?
#19i’ve been working remotely for a decade and i’ve never been happier. i also suspect that the population being happier is no doubt bad for corporate profits.
I think you should consider more than your own happiness, we're talking about the economy, this includes local markets, hairdressers, restaurants, municipal areas, parks, etc. There is a pull that cities have, that includes being in close proximity to people who earn a bit more, greater foot traffic, activities, and shops, among millions of other things I guess if you want to sum up everyone else who was a part of th…
There's an assumption you're making, which is the current model of cities, ie. a dense downtown area, is the right model.
This wouldn't be the case if we optimized for the right set of constraints - all of the places you mentioned being in walking distance. If there were more restaurants in the neighborhood, I'd eat out thrice a week at the very least.
Re: Is remote work bad for the economy?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you should consider more than your own happiness, we're talking about the economy, this includes local markets, hairdressers, restaurants, municipal areas, parks, etc. There is a pull that cities have, that includes being in close proximity to people who earn a bit more, greater foot traffic, activities, and shops, among millions of other things I guess if you want to sum up everyone else who was a part of th…
Uhh... nobody stops going to the barber just because they work from home.
Not only that, who goes to a barber during work hours? That's something that one would assume would happen closer to home regardless, such as on a weekend.