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

Can we have the day off?

mlsu.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

491–500 of 823 posts

Re: Can we have the day off?

#491

Post by sassbadger »

ericd wrote: post #455
iteria wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone talks about MLK, but no one points out that people were willing to listen because Malcom X was a looming threat if MLK failed. Yes vote, but the threat of violence is what makes voting a delighted option. That's why protests exist. They are reminders that peace is a choice. Violent revolution has merit when peaceful means break down. The rise of the guillotine jokes are the first time that people are losing…

For anyone thinking about going that way, I highly recommend listening to the Revolutions podcast series starting here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1wVvwnrBP2cVQrFf06RoO9 It'll probably disabuse you of the idea that its a good way to get things done.

It is one of the most eye opening pieces of media. Especially the French and Russian Revolutions are covered in such great detail, while staying interesting. I also loved the appendix to the show where Mike talked about "patterns" in a revolution. Learned a lot about the relationship between the government and its people.

Re: Can we have the day off?

#492

Post by xnx »

cattown wrote: post #33

This article is kind of playful, but I think there’s a serious point here that’s not discussed enough. We’re being asked to usher in huge productivity gains by introducing AI to our workflows, but we’re not asking how does it help us? Not a lot of us stand to directly gain from our employers becoming more productive. I know everybody is afraid of getting fired and replaced with AI or whatever right now. But we should…

> But we should be seriously asking in our next all hands meetings if 10x’ing our productivity can get us some days off.

Pretty sure if you ask this that they'll give you all your days off.

Re: Can we have the day off?

#493

Post by agnishom »

This is the most important thing about AI, that the policymakers and AI companies need to discuss more. If AI is making us, as a race, more productive, who is reaping the benefits of that productivity?

Re: Can we have the day off?

#494

Post by cameronh90 »

wombatpm wrote: post #482
jchw wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe that activism actually generally works, and I am skeptical that voting works either. Don't get me wrong. I do vote, and I believe that voting and activism can work, and even still does for a variety of things. But as for fighting against forces of corruption and tyranny, I believe activism is about as useful as an ashtray on a motorcycle. Any grassroots efforts are in a horribly asymmetric battle agai…

They grew out of red light cameras, which everyone saw as a naked cash grab- especially once towns were caught tweaking the yellow light timings. Cops love them, and look longingly at the UK panopticon and how easy it is to solve crimes.

If our panopticon actually meant crimes got solved, I’d be less pissed off by it.

Instead we’re being spied on but seemingly police can’t solve any of the crime affecting most people’s day to day lives.

Re: Can we have the day off?

#495

Post by yladiz »

manmal wrote: post #394
throw0101a wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He has this great quote about when computers came out: "We were told 'computers will save you so much time on work tasks that you won't even know what to do with your free time'. I spent the next 30 years working the same number of hours. " From about one hundred years ago: > Now it is true that the needs of human beings may seem to be insatiable. But they fall into two classes --those needs which are absolute in t…

In some European countries, you can actually go on welfare and never work again. It takes some tricks because the state doesn’t like it; and maybe you‘ll want to do some undeclared side jobs for 15h a week and you’ll be comfortable. I don’t know how such people can live with themselves. But apparently, if you’re immune to the second factor, it is possible, nowadays, to work 15h or less, without any wealth, and lead a…

Which European countries?

Re: Can we have the day off?

#496

Post by TFYS »

jlebar wrote: post #416
musicale wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would question the premise that all or even most of the productivity gains of any past technological improvement have accrued to the benefit of solely those at the top of an enormous pile of wealth. The historical automation story seems to be that technology replaces workers, and those workers typically end up taking lower-paying jobs: "replacing workers with technology “explains 50 to 70%” of the increase in ine…

> The historical automation story seems to be that technology replaces workers, and those workers typically end up taking lower-paying jobs As I said, when farming became more efficient, it wasn't great to be a farmer. But when I say (and I assume everyone else here also says) "I don't want to go back to a world where 90% of people had to be farmers" (because farming was so inefficient), that's another way of saying,…

> In other words, the economic surplus did not go exclusively or primarily to the richest.

That was in large part due of strong leftist movements and states that forced the capitalists to share the increasing wealth. WW2 and the resulting labor shortage and other special circumstances contributed as well. Currently no such movements and circumstances exist. Globalization and the resulting free movent of capital has put capitalists in a better position to direct the extra wealth for themselves than ever before. A global movement is required to get a meaningful share of the increased surplus to the workers now, and that is very hard to do. The market will not do it on its own, as the demand for human labor eventually decreases due to automation.

Re: Can we have the day off?

#497

Post by yladiz »

knownjorbist wrote: post #464
polisaez wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was looking for facts to disprove your point, but it seems we actually work more than our ancestors. Medieval folks and hunter-gatherers had plenty of time off. It wasn't until the industrial revolution that we started extending our workweek. Here's a nice summary of how the workweek looked like, from the AskHistorians subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1rf0lb/comme...

I don't think this is an accurate picture for a number of reasons, first and foremost that these people regularly died from trivially preventable reasons. That luxury today takes a lot of effort from a lot of people. I'm pretty sure most of white collar HN crowd isn't being ground into dust. It'd be cool to work less though!

Well yeah we didn’t have antibiotics and other knowledge we have now. But that doesn’t change the fact people worked less in the past.

Re: Can we have the day off?

#498

Post by kelnos »

_carbyau_ wrote: post #7
nemomarx wrote: post #2

the four day work week has been trialed many times and already would have been the same or higher productivity before agents, honestly. if agents get really good let's just go to 3?

From an economic flow point of view: Time not spent working could be time working on spending.

But if people's wages don't increase when we go from a 5- to 4-day work week, where do consumers get the extra money to spend on that extra day off?

Re: Can we have the day off?

#499

Post by petersellers »

slg wrote: post #269
ipaddr wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Classic American politics right there: Person 1: "We need class solidarity against the billionaires." Person 2: "No, it's the immigrants' fault."

So true. Pick your boogeyman (Muslims/Immigrants/Antifa/Trans/"Marxists"), pump the attack propaganda through all available media channels and hope no one mentions the billionaires.

It's been awhile since 9/11 and we've got pretty short memories, so we'll probably cycle back to Muslims soon.

Re: Can we have the day off?

#500

Post by liendolucas »

Excellent. Besides the article, I've always questioned myself many many times how is it that the whole world has agreed that we have to work 5 days and rest 2. Why is it that, why can't be 4 and 3? I truly wish that in general we work a bit less. Even if it is not a whole day off, then having a workday of around 6 hours would mean that you could still have some free time for yourself.
Post reply on HN