10 Comments

I love the quote from Krugman about how the purpose of the economy isn't to make bosses happy. I think we're in a media era that relies too heavily on the opinions of owners/C-suite without taking into consideration whether the facts support their assertions. Remote work isn't perfect, but having it available to your employees can improve productivity by allowing your workers to take care of their actual lives (children, caring for relatives, exercise) without burning out.

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Yes, Harlan County, yes, yes, yes. I do think the Democratic Party, and the far left in particular, have in many ways abandoned the working class.

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I'm lucky enough to have been a full-time writer for 32 years now so I've worked from home for a very long time. But, during the pandemic, as I had food and other things delivered to me (and having been a pizza man and sandwich maker during college) I certainly realized that people were able to work-from-home because of the underpaid labor of people who couldn't work from home. I present no grand economic theories about this. But when I read the news about Amazon employees striking here in Seattle due in part to return-to-office orders, I thought of all the underpaid service workers in Amazon's neighborhood and their employment prospects.

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In New Zealand, we only had a limited period of remote working before we were expected back in the office. Although some things were definitely better with people all in one room, I definitely found that remote working suited me.

I ended up changing to a job which has me entirely working from home. I'm highly productive working this way, although I occasionally miss the human company.

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