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Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

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Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#121
post #118

Overworked? Everyone is overworked. We live in a post scarcity industrial world, or very very close to it, and bad actors have gobbled up the spoils of the huge gains in productivity in the last 50 years. How much of the entire economy is predicated on grey money? How much of your time is indirectly consumed by this leviathan? The more I think about it, the more i want to opt out of the entire fucking thing.

Where do you live? Because if you live in the western world and in a country with a reasonable amount personal and financial freedom, you are out of your freaking mind.

I make 6 figures in the Western US.

Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#122

Overworked? Everyone is overworked. We live in a post scarcity industrial world, or very very close to it, and bad actors have gobbled up the spoils of the huge gains in productivity in the last 50 years. How much of the entire economy is predicated on grey money? How much of your time is indirectly consumed by this leviathan? The more I think about it, the more i want to opt out of the entire fucking thing.

We do not live in a post-scarcity world, and to say that we do shows a failure to understand the economic concept of scarcity. If goods aren't scarce, they have no opportunity cost -- anyone in such a society could get as much, e.g., filet mignon as they want without sacrificing their ability to get quality healthcare, education, or consumer electronics. Greater overall and per capita productivity isn't, and doesn't…

We're close to post industrial, at least in the 1st world.

We're close.

We certainly don't need to live in a world where millions die for lack of will, or failing that, where trillions of dollars of value are siphoned off of the working class in an upwards waterfall.

Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#123

Overworked? Everyone is overworked. We live in a post scarcity industrial world, or very very close to it, and bad actors have gobbled up the spoils of the huge gains in productivity in the last 50 years. How much of the entire economy is predicated on grey money? How much of your time is indirectly consumed by this leviathan? The more I think about it, the more i want to opt out of the entire fucking thing.

We do not live in a post-scarcity world, and to say that we do shows a failure to understand the economic concept of scarcity. If goods aren't scarce, they have no opportunity cost -- anyone in such a society could get as much, e.g., filet mignon as they want without sacrificing their ability to get quality healthcare, education, or consumer electronics. Greater overall and per capita productivity isn't, and doesn't…

[deleted]

Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I've got a better idea. Keep the vacation and cut work hours down to 40. Pff, more like we should go to 35hrs with mandatory _paid_ overtime and also _increase_ vacation to 6 weeks. And also demand reparations for all the stolen time. (Real pay hasn't increased since 1970.) After that we can talk about taking it further.

Welcome to Norway except for the bit about reparations, and it's 37.5 hours.

Here in Austria its 38.5hrs, 5 weeks vacation, and in June and December employees receive a doubled monthly salary ("vacation money" and "christmas money").

Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#125
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wanna think of something scary? A post-work world with scarcity.

That's rapidly approaching (and, arguably, already here for a growing number of people.)

Yes, that's true. And appalling.

Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#126
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Volume and proportion are not the same thing. 50% of net is very easy when you have >10% of all wealth. No super rich individuals are taxed at 50% either of their net income either (if they are they are doing their taxes themselves and their lawyer is a fool), it is more common for ultra high wealth individuals to pay less than 10% of their net earnings.

I see your point, but don't forget that almost 50% of Americans don't pay any federal tax at all.[1] In fact some of them get EITC, so they are getting free money from the government on top of keeping all of their salary. So my question still stands, what would be a fair breakdown of tax burden? Top 1% pay 100% of all income taxes? 90%? I'm not trying to start an argument, I'm asking an honest question. Unless we kno…

[deleted]

Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#127
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Volume and proportion are not the same thing. 50% of net is very easy when you have >10% of all wealth. No super rich individuals are taxed at 50% either of their net income either (if they are they are doing their taxes themselves and their lawyer is a fool), it is more common for ultra high wealth individuals to pay less than 10% of their net earnings.

I see your point, but don't forget that almost 50% of Americans don't pay any federal tax at all.[1] In fact some of them get EITC, so they are getting free money from the government on top of keeping all of their salary. So my question still stands, what would be a fair breakdown of tax burden? Top 1% pay 100% of all income taxes? 90%? I'm not trying to start an argument, I'm asking an honest question. Unless we kno…

[deleted]

Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#128
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Volume and proportion are not the same thing. 50% of net is very easy when you have >10% of all wealth. No super rich individuals are taxed at 50% either of their net income either (if they are they are doing their taxes themselves and their lawyer is a fool), it is more common for ultra high wealth individuals to pay less than 10% of their net earnings.

I see your point, but don't forget that almost 50% of Americans don't pay any federal tax at all.[1] In fact some of them get EITC, so they are getting free money from the government on top of keeping all of their salary. So my question still stands, what would be a fair breakdown of tax burden? Top 1% pay 100% of all income taxes? 90%? I'm not trying to start an argument, I'm asking an honest question. Unless we kno…

[deleted]

Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#129

Overworked? Everyone is overworked. We live in a post scarcity industrial world, or very very close to it, and bad actors have gobbled up the spoils of the huge gains in productivity in the last 50 years. How much of the entire economy is predicated on grey money? How much of your time is indirectly consumed by this leviathan? The more I think about it, the more i want to opt out of the entire fucking thing.

We do not live in a post-scarcity world, and to say that we do shows a failure to understand the economic concept of scarcity. If goods aren't scarce, they have no opportunity cost -- anyone in such a society could get as much, e.g., filet mignon as they want without sacrificing their ability to get quality healthcare, education, or consumer electronics. Greater overall and per capita productivity isn't, and doesn't…

I don't quite follow this.

I'm inclined to believe we are experiencing scarcity. Sure, I can buy just about anything I desire and can afford. Any food item, cheap clothing, cheap travel. But I think that's an illusion.

Let's say I'm prepared to pay £50-£100 for an item of clothing. Shoes, jacket, whatever. It's likely to be made by impoverished people on the other side of the world who are paid peanuts.

I could even pay £5 for a pair of jeans if I wanted. God knows how that's even possible.

But it's a sliding tile puzzle. If I experience cheap apparently-plentiful goods, it's only because someone else is suffering.

I'm not prepared to pay £300 for a long-lasting item of clothing. The thought barely crosses my mind because I never see that stuff in the windows of high-street shops. Instead, I typically buy "cheap", "plentiful" goods that fall apart after a year or two -- or go out of fashion -- then replace them.

Ethically I dislike this, and try to shop "ethically" and donate old clothing to charity. This requires high levels of vigilance, and is not convenient.

All the above apply to food. I can buy apparently any item I want. Or can I? In actuality, I can buy whatever trendy item the supermarkets can buy in bulk for best profit. Great, I'll have some kale and coconut water and acai berries. Is that "plenty"? What about locally produced fruit and veg? Why do I have to invest in a comparatively-expensive box delivery scheme if I want apples that were grown in my country?

If I want to eat locally reared meat I have to pay a premium, because provenance has become a valuable attribute. Instead I could buy mechanically recovered pressed meat, which is unbelievably cheap and widely available. Even if I believe it's healthy to eat that stuff, and even though both products are undeniably "meat", they're not the same.

Perhaps meat being expensive is actually normal. That's certainly been the case for most of history. In which case, the cheapness of the lower quality meat products is the illusory factor.

So I think "plenty" is an illusion, and scarcity is far, far closer than we conspire to believe.

Edit: I forgot the most obvious and familiar example. Ad-funded content/services vs paid-for content/services.

Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#130
post #26
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much of your time is indirectly consumed by this leviathan? If you're talking about taxes, I'm right there with you!

No I believe he meant the fact that wage gains have not kept up with productivity gains

No need to argue! You can blame both oligarchs and socialists. It's not like they're actually in opposition or anything.
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