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

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

cnbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 229 posts

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

#101

Post by sghiassy »

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?

Peasants under Feudalism had zero hope progressing.

Upward mobility is probably something every generation has complained about throughout history. Economic nihilism isn’t the answer.

Our future generations count on us to improve whatever cards we’re dealt

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

#102

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

slashdev wrote: post #96
tspike wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That's a glass half full way to look at it. I'm creating jobs here and helping the local economy. I think it's a win-win.

That's what the people say who tear down 3 4-plexes to build a triple-lot mansion in Chicago say.

If you have the option, more power to you - literally.

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

#103

Post by watwut »

trident5000 wrote: post #71
doctorwho42 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is wanting to live less than an hour commute to work "the most niche place on earth"? Most people I know are renting because they can't afford anything within an hour commute and we have grown up hearing and seeing the pains of the commuter life. So why saddle ourselves with both a 30 year mortgage for a overpriced home that will also drain us of 10+hrs/week

Sounds like a lifestyle choice. Stop packing into cities like a can of sardines and it wont be an issue. Being inflexible to literal physics and reality is a personal issue.

Living in a place with no jobs is not exactly the solution for financial issues. And when you commute for more then 3 hours each day, it becomes impossible to be present parent or keep relationships or just do anything except work.

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

#104

Post by anovikov »

jonahrd wrote: post #100
anovikov wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 usu…

I see. This article compares GDP vs housing prices, which isn't a surprise that US fares very well because the US is stellar at GDP growth. But GDP is _absolutely irrelevant_ to the average citizen's purchasing power / income.

The particular chart i posted a separate link for, uses inflation adjustment, not GDP adjustment.

And sure, every country has a growing segregation between attractive, expensive areas and unattractive, cheap ones. That's normal. Fitting into attractive ones is a matter of competition and only the best few will - there can't be a place for everyone there no matter how the economy is doing and how high/low are the taxes "for the rich" (because it's not the rich who are buying up the housing).

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

#105

Post by pb7 »

culopatin wrote: post #74
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?

My theory is that compared to people in the 60s say, there are more things to do with your free time now, to the point where they are sometimes in conflict. Before you’d get home and all you could do was have a beer and maybe watch tv, listen to the radio, read a book. Now we are so connected to so many things, and we know about all the activities possible around us through social media, that work is in the way. Work…

Well said. Life is really freaking good. There is a never ending list of cool things to do. No matter what you choose, you will be missing out on something else that’s equally amazing.

I wouldn’t trade my life now to be a billionaire 70 years ago.

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

#106

Post by dsr_ »

electriclove wrote: post #91
slashdev wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Where at? Are you Hispanic or white?

You may be surprised to discover that coming from a Spanish-speaking culture is orthogonal with the color of your skin.

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

#107

Post by ellisv »

kevincox wrote: post #64
syntaxing wrote: post #10

One way to think about it is that you’re getting a 20% pay bump. It’s not 1:1 exactly but I’m willing to bet a lot of people would trade certain perks for a 20% bump. But it’s a net loss for society to remove these perks. Being young means you don’t need these perks. You don’t give a damn about healthcare, child care, or life insurance. But you most likely will in a decade and getting it back these perks would be nea…

I don't think this is a reasonable way to think about it. You are getting 20% more *per hour* but that isn't the same as a 20% pay bump. It doesn't help you afford a house, raise kids or buy luxuries. (Unless you use that extra 20% time to find a different job that pays similar). Personally I would switch to a 4 day week with 20% less salary. I would probably even be more than 80% of my current productivity because I…

The pay might be the same but you’d have more time for other things, which could include more work.

One reason I stopped consulting on the side was a lack of time. Even my hobby projects have taken a backseat these days.

I imagine some people would choose to work a part time job or learn a new skill, which would increase their income potential in the long run.

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

#108

Post by voisin »

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…

> My mortgage is -$2000 / month. That's right, negative $2000 because I save the full mortgage payment plus an extra $2000 on taxes each month, completely legally and above board.

Can you elaborate?

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

#109

Post by [deleted] »

bequanna wrote: post #26
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?

As someone who considers themselves to be pretty motivated and entrepreneurial, I look around and see very little opportunity. Businesses that actually make money trade at all time high multiples while funding for a new business is non existent. Want to buy a business? Good luck, high interest rates squeeze margins to nothing. The financialization of housing means you’re competing with massive hedge funds when you wa…

[deleted]

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

#110

Post by epaulson »

RecycledEle wrote: post #22

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

An important part of this is to eliminate the idea that as a society we all need to have the same 2 weekend days off. (Which we don't anyway because a huge percentage of the population does work on weekends, just not most "professionals".)

Let my dentist's office be open 7 days a week, with some of them working M-Th and some working Thur-Sun and some working Sat-Tues etc. Maybe some of them mix it up and do M/T/Th/Fr or M/W/F/Su or whatever.

K-12 schools are the tough nut to crack in this scenario.

Post reply on HN