this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 269 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I love how in every topic about WFH there's some dudebro going on about the economy suffering due to supposed lessened productivity and I'm like... Why should I care?

[–] [email protected] 134 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don't you even think about the billionaires, bro?

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago

Less trickling down for me

[–] [email protected] 95 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I love the abstract “productivity”.

Like yo, cancer is incredibly productive.

Demolishing subsistence farms and replacing them with cash crop slave plantations is mad profitable.

I could make thousands of dollars in a day if I just sold everything I own.

Our metrics of economic growth revolve around basically doing all of the above, to varying degrees of figurative vs. literal-ness.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

This reminded me of an old joke:

Two economists are walking down the street with their friend when they come across a fresh, streaming pile of dog shit. The first economist jokingly tells the other "I'll give you a million dollars if you eat that pile of dog shit". To his surprise, the second economist grabs it off the ground and eats it without hesitation. A deal is a deal so the first economist hands over a million dollars.

A few minutes later they come across a second pile of shit. The second economist, wanting to give his peer a taste of his own medicine, says he'll give the first economist a million dollars if he eats it. The first economist agrees and does so, winning him a million dollars.

Their friend, rather confused, asks what the point of all this was, the first economist gave the second economist a million dollars, and then the second economist gave it right back. All they've accomplished is to eat two piles of shit.

The two economists look rather taken aback. "Well sure," they say, "but we've grown the economy by two million dollars!"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

The story is interesting but not very lifelike. The first economist would be much richer than the first, if they were OK with spending that much money on humiliating someone else. The likelihood that the second economist would accept the same deal is impossible in my mind. That amount of money is just humiliation money to them, not really worth it.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

People have been told their entire lives that the GDP of their nation matters without ever considering what it actually represents, or how it actually went up.

Great, number go up, but why and who actually benefitted.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year ago

The 1%. Productivity has been going through the roof, wages have stagnated for decades.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Excuse the week-old reply but

People have been told their entire lives that the GDP of their nation matters without ever considering what it actually represents, or how it actually went up.

You got a poor, poor education if you were never taught why the GDP matters, or what it represents.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Welcome to America

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You should care because that profit should be going to the workers who create the value. It doesn't go to the workers, so you should continue not caring about productivity. Damn the man.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh no! We got so wrapped up thinking about general human well-being, we forgot about productivity!

But for real, if the economy isn't for people then wtf is it for?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Oh, it is for people. Just not for people like us.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Don't you understand? The line must go up as sharply as possible forever.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

It's also bullshit. Worker productivity is overall slightly up with WFH. The economy suffered from the pandemic and everything that entails.