Is remote work bad for the economy? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is remote work bad for the economy?

#21

Post by fnordpiglet » Wed, Feb 01, 2023, 3:08 AM UTC

latency-guy2 wrote: post #10

wkdneidbwf wrote: post #2

i’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…

“You should care about the economy more than your happiness” is absurd.

Re: Is remote work bad for the economy?

#22

Post by tempestn » Wed, Feb 01, 2023, 3:09 AM UTC

There's an economic flipside to the 'death of the city' aspects too though, which is that the ability for companies to hire from outside of big cities, and the ability of people to take jobs with companies based anywhere, opens up a ton of economic opportunity. There's clearly an opportunity for a much more efficient system if where you live and where you work don't need to be geographically coupled.

Re: Is remote work bad for the economy?

#23

Post by BizarreByte » Wed, Feb 01, 2023, 3:09 AM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #13

latency-guy2 wrote: post #10

Earlier 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.

I stopped going to the barber, not because of WFH, but for the same reasons that caused widespread WFH. After barbers were closed for months during lockdown I couldn’t take it and started cutting my own hair. I’ve never gone back to the barber since that point.

Re: Is remote work bad for the economy?

#24

Post by latency-guy2 » Wed, Feb 01, 2023, 3:09 AM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #13

latency-guy2 wrote: post #10

Earlier 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.

I did, so that's not true

Re: Is remote work bad for the economy?

#25

Post by briga » Wed, Feb 01, 2023, 3:09 AM UTC

Bad for which economy? Countless programmers over the years have packed up their bags and moved away from their small towns to live in big expensive tech hubs. This has certainly been beneficial for the economy of large metros--they didn't pay to educate these workers and in many cases these workers (including myself) were raised and educated in completely different countries. So these metros have a huge pool of high-skilled young working age adults bringing billions into the economy just in taxes. But what about the towns these people are from? They essentially get nothing out of the bargain, unless one day one of those workers decides to plop down a retirement home there, which by then their economic contributions have already peaked. The way I see it remote work reverses this trend and offers a far more equitable way of doing things. It takes the strain off the big metros and allows wealth to be spread more equally across the country.

Re: Is remote work bad for the economy?

#26

Post by latency-guy2 » Wed, Feb 01, 2023, 3:10 AM UTC

fnordpiglet wrote: post #21

latency-guy2 wrote: post #10

Earlier 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…

“You should care about the economy more than your happiness” is absurd.

I don't think I said those words, so sure?

Re: Is remote work bad for the economy?

#27

Post by mannerheim » Wed, Feb 01, 2023, 3:10 AM UTC

'We are suffering from the intolerable competition of a foreign rival, placed, it would seem, in a condition so far superior to ours for the production of light that he absolutely inundates our national market with it at a price fabulously reduced. The moment he shows himself, our trade leaves us — all consumers apply to him; and a branch of native industry, having countless ramifications, is all at once rendered completely stagnant. This rival, who is none other than the sun, wages war mercilessly against us, and we suspect that he has been raised up by perfidious Albion (good policy nowadays), inasmuch as he displays toward that haughty island a circumspection with which he dispenses in our case.

What we pray for is that it may please you to pass a law ordering the shutting up of all windows, skylights, dormer-windows, outside and inside shutters, curtains, blinds, bull's-eyes; in a word, of all openings, holes, chinks, clefts, and fissures, by or through which the light of the sun has been in use to enter houses, to the prejudice of the meritorious manufactures with which we flatter ourselves that we have accommodated our country — a country that, in gratitude, ought not to abandon us now to a strife so unequal.'

Re: Is remote work bad for the economy?

#28

Post by galleywest200 » Wed, Feb 01, 2023, 3:10 AM UTC

thundergolfer wrote: post #17

NickBusey wrote: post #5

The 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 tumou…

Sure, it is fun. But the point of the article and discussion is not to be city-phobic like your quote suggests -- rather why do we need our economy to focus around people commuting? It is not only inner-city folks. A lot of these restaurants in cities rely on all of the people coming in for work.

Re: Is remote work bad for the economy?

#29

Post by xnyan » Wed, Feb 01, 2023, 3:11 AM UTC

latency-guy2 wrote: post #10

wkdneidbwf wrote: post #2

i’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…

With remote work I find myself with a little more time to go to lunch, or out to dinner, or other things that involve spending money in the community around me I didn't have time for when I was commuting.

Re: Is remote work bad for the economy?

#30

Post by fnordpiglet » Wed, Feb 01, 2023, 3:11 AM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #13

latency-guy2 wrote: post #10

Earlier 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.

To be fair I did. I got a flobee (or the modern equivalent, a battery powered clipper with a vacuum) and do my own hair since I started w@h about 10 years ago. I did that because I had more time at home to do it. Before I was so rarely home I had to go to a barber next to the office. I also did it because I hate having to have uncomfortable conversations with someone I don’t know merely because my head excretes too much keratin.