OK, my title may be a bit incendiary… But I’ve about had it with the recent constant parade of articles calling for “return to the office” as a cure for everything. It’s almost like the Murdoch press has a vested interest? Anyway, we’re in a cost of living crisis and we’re calling to lump everyone with higher travel, and food costs all over again. So much for work life balance. If everyone does return to their offices will the press start running fluff articles about all the suburban cafes and restaurants that are suffering now that their local post-pandemic foot traffic is stuck back in the city?
We’ve moved beyond late stage capitalism and are now in end stage, palliative capitalism.
That’s where the proletariat are simultaneously deprived of survivable income and also punished for not spending enough to keep capitalism working.
This country has barely any industry outside of sales and the land. We either sell the land, or dig it up and sell it.
Hate to shatter your world view but mining is only about 5.8%% of the economy — same size as our manufacturing industry coincidentally. Realestate only makes up 3.1% of the economy.
Most of the economy is services at 68%. Our health care industry (part of services) is larger than our mining industry. Our education industry(again services) is 4.8% of the economy. We actually have a pretty diversified economy.
Manufacturing isn’t the be all of an economy and it isn’t where the wage to profit ratio is equitable. We all earn more as a service economy than we would as a manufacturing economy.
I have a question,
If our economy is all service related we would be very insular and not bringing in outside investment. Woudlnt that cause stagnation?
I sell coffee to buy healthcare who buy education who bye coffee. Round and round
No. We sell our services overseas. Most of our education industry (in dollar value) is international. We provide STEM services, legal services, financial services, etc to other countries etc.
Taking a step back there is no difference in your question between a national economy and the entire world economy. 64% of the world economy is services.
So no, services aren’t an inferior category of the economy. Manufacturing is fundamentally a service there are just foods involved. You can fuck up manufacturing by making something you can’t sell for more than it cost to make or even sell for less than it costs to make. This is harder to do with services, or at least feedback is quicker because you don’t hold inventory of services.
So then how do we grow the economy if all everyone is just doing is Services for everyone else. This is the fundamental problem with capitalism. There are only two ways. Population growth and debt. But that’s a lesson for another day.
Thank you, the last paragraph really framed my question for myself haha.
Palliative Capitalism, I learned something new today.
Let’s not dirty our nice new social with murdoch bullshit please. Don’t give them the clicks.
Install the “Bye Rupert” extension so as not to inadvertently do so as well
Archive link: https://archive.is/teMkE
I’ll also note that ‘archive.is’ seems to have a pretty good success rate for de-paywalling things at the moment (12ft.io seems to not, lately).
Vacant shops… the commercial lot owners could always charge rent at what the market can bear.
Gotta love how “efficient” the free market is hey
Problem is lot owners borrowed to purchase or build a building that was obscenely overpriced due to lack of supply.
Sally capp and her vested interest in bringing spending back into the city. Why people should be forced to pay for transport and give up time with family etc to buy coffee is behind me.
Why don’t the local mayors in the suburbs fight back to support their local businesses who are thriving due to wfh?
Sally Capp says she wants people in the city, but she’s taken away carparks, increased parking charges and narrowed roads to reduce traffic.
Why should anyone have to travel to the city when they can work from home? It saves them money and time, it’s great for the environment, and it transfers at least some spending on coffee and lunch to local areas instead of the city.
Millennials are killing commercial real estate.
Bro aeriosuly my hate for boomers keeps growing everyday
Started new job, work from home so great; training from home not so much.
I can’t wait till my probation is off so I can work from home at least once a week.
Won’t somebody please think of the super funds!!!
I really don’t see the fuss. I’ve been back in the office full time since last year.
If we need a WFH day we can have it otherwise expectations are too go in.
I honestly prefer the flexibility of a day at home when I need it over having agreed home and office days.
Many people at my workplace are saying similar, “it’s not that bad, what’s the fuss” etc. The point is you can just as easily ask employers “what’s the fuss?” when they whinge and moan about their empty offices. I’m yet to see a real argument beyond “we believe face-to-face time increases collaboration and innovation” as though that means anything.
On the other hand, 3 years WFH and we continued to post record profits year after year, just like before the pandemic, just like we undoubtedly will after… it makes no difference… just let people work from wherever they want. I do agree with your sentiment about having agreed home and office days (hybrid working is not flexible).
I’m glad it works for you. It doesn’t for me and a lot of other people. I changed jobs because my previous job wanted us to come back in. I will never return to the office. There’s no benefit to the business and all the costs of coming in are borne by me.
Look, I too would prefer to be in the office most days, and being new to my industry, wished others would do the same. But it’s just not practical for so many people to be in every day when they have kids, or can’t afford to live close to work.
I’m glad my company doesn’t have any expectation of being in the office.
I have got kids and travel for over an hour to get into the office. It’s what we all did pre-covid
Working from home is a privilege and should be treated as such. If it’s taken for granted it will be taken away
Good for you, if an hour commute either way suits you, then cool. Though it’s been shown through so many studies that a commute that long increases stress. It’s also an hour you’ll never get back.
If you’re happy, then I’m happy for you, but you’d do well to use a little empathy that for others 2 hours from their day just makes life harder. Not everyone has they same life you have. We would all do well to remember that.
