Previous discussion in 2015
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10738607
A Day in the Life of Americans
61–66 of 66 posts
Re: A Day in the Life of Americans
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't actually think your second point is correct on either a historical or practical level. Historically, humans had a lot of what would now be considered downtime, especially in certain societies. And practically, nothing actually "requires" that except for the fact that we've set up society in such a way to allow some people get to grow wildly wealthy on the backs on the labor of most of the people putting in th…
Its really astonishing to me how wealthy some people are getting from others work. I completely support people getting wildly rich from their own efforts, but from the way that our society is structured, most wealth is just capturing the value of another persons labor.
Though this analysis often leaves out risk.
Classic example being to take on $100k of debt to start a business and then paying workers $20/hour. Only one person is on the hook for $100k and they are rewarded accordingly if it pays off.
It's easy for the workers to then conspire about how unfair it is that the debtor isn't out there in the sun like them, but that's not a very complete picture of reality. Zero risk is part of the workers' compensation.
Re: A Day in the Life of Americans
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its really astonishing to me how wealthy some people are getting from others work. I completely support people getting wildly rich from their own efforts, but from the way that our society is structured, most wealth is just capturing the value of another persons labor.
Though this analysis often leaves out risk. Classic example being to take on $100k of debt to start a business and then paying workers $20/hour. Only one person is on the hook for $100k and they are rewarded accordingly if it pays off. It's easy for the workers to then conspire about how unfair it is that the debtor isn't out there in the sun like them, but that's not a very complete picture of reality. Zero risk is…
There have been centuries of philosophical debate on this subject. I don't think anyone who seriously looks at the topic is leaving out risk.
The argument (outside of Marxist circles) is more to do with whether business owners are being overcompensated because owners are able to exploit the market failures of the labor market--information asymmetry, power imbalances, quasi monopsony positions, government assistance for low paid employees etc...
There are also arguments about whether owners are being overprotected from risks by relatively recent concepts like limited liability (and more direct forms of corporate welfare), and arguments that workers aren't really in a zero risk position.
Re: A Day in the Life of Americans
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fun fact: if you took all the income in the U.S. (labor + capital) and distributed it evenly, every adult person would make about $65,000. Quite comfortable, and maybe a big improvement on the status quo, but still "working stiff" territory. We still live in an era where America's protestant work ethic is relevant. Maybe that'll change decades from now, but we're still quite a ways away from being in a post-scarcity…
Depends what you mean by post-scarcity. For example, if supermarkets weren't as interested in profit, they might choose a lower price point which would allow them to sell "ugly" produce. I've seen many different estimates of how much produce is discarded for ugliness, but all indicate a large portion. The knock-on effects of profit-seeking are large. And not all bad, of course.
Supermarkets make almost no profit. It’s people who want better looking fruit.
Re: A Day in the Life of Americans
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
So are you sleeping 5.5-6 hours per night? Is this just on work days or all the time? How long can you / have you sustained doing this regularly?
I've known a few people who were fine on 4 hours a night. just the way they were built. for me, less than 7 and I simply can't concentrate on anything all day, til about an hour before my next bedtime...
Scientific evidence matches your anecdotes. There is a very small percentage of people whose genes allow them to only need 4-5 hours of sleep each night. It's somewhere in the low single digit percentages.
For the rest of us, 7-9 hours are required for proper functioning. If we get by on less, we're functioning suboptimally whether we realize it or not.
Re: A Day in the Life of Americans
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends what you mean by post-scarcity. For example, if supermarkets weren't as interested in profit, they might choose a lower price point which would allow them to sell "ugly" produce. I've seen many different estimates of how much produce is discarded for ugliness, but all indicate a large portion. The knock-on effects of profit-seeking are large. And not all bad, of course.
Supermarkets make almost no profit. It’s people who want better looking fruit.
So how is it that there's such a large variation in the price of produce at different supermarkets?