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> - Start working part time, and part of that part time remotely. With the number of people currently having to work more than one job, it's hard to see how th

> - Start working part time, and part of that part time remotely. With the number of people currently having to work more than one job, it's hard to see how they can switch to part-time. I know some people who pay >50% of their income towards rent, and their rent isn't especially high. It's that their income per job isn't very high, and housing is set by competitive demand in areas with jobs, not by cost of provision. We're going to have to solve the cost-of-basics problem somehow, before many people can reduce their work hours to part time. But that doesn't stop people who can do it from doing it, and maybe that's enough to turn the tide for everyone.

perfunctory 8y ago
> With the number of people currently having to work more than one job, it's hard to see how they can switch to part-time. "I don't know the circumstances of every person on the planet and therefor don't know what they can do. But I think I know what HN crowd could do."
- jlokier 8y ago
  I'm sure your comment is making a point, but to be honest I can't be sure what it is. My point was that switching to part-time seems unachievable to me for the majority of people, without changing other factors at the same time, and so we should simultaneously enquire how you recommend to deal with those other factors, for the advice to be most effective. I don't wish to dismiss the advice; I wish to understand how to solve the obstacles to actioning it. Is your point that HN crowd are relatively well off, so part-time and remote work is available to many of the HN crowd? (I'm pretty sure we're on the same side of the general debate, in favour of individuals taking actions that they can to improve their footprint.)
  - perfunctory 8y ago
    Well, so my thinking is along these lines. What we now call "full-time" - 40 hours a week - is not a law of nature. It's a social construct. In the beginning of the industrial revolution everybody worked 12 hours a day without the weekend. Labor movement (or was it Henry Ford? I don't know) pushed for shorter working week. It didn't seem to destroy the economy. So I don't see why we can't make it even shorter. And HN crowd, as indeed relatively well off, can lead the way. As more and more people work "part" time it might change the popular perception and eventually the rest of the society and regulation might follow.
    - jlokier 8y ago
      Thanks. I completely agree with this.

perfunctory 8y ago

> With the number of people currently having to work more than one job, it's hard to see how they can switch to part-time. "I don't know the circumstances of every person on the planet and therefor don't know what they can do. But I think I know what HN crowd could do."

jlokier 8y ago
I'm sure your comment is making a point, but to be honest I can't be sure what it is. My point was that switching to part-time seems unachievable to me for the majority of people, without changing other factors at the same time, and so we should simultaneously enquire how you recommend to deal with those other factors, for the advice to be most effective. I don't wish to dismiss the advice; I wish to understand how to solve the obstacles to actioning it. Is your point that HN crowd are relatively well off, so part-time and remote work is available to many of the HN crowd? (I'm pretty sure we're on the same side of the general debate, in favour of individuals taking actions that they can to improve their footprint.)
- perfunctory 8y ago
  Well, so my thinking is along these lines. What we now call "full-time" - 40 hours a week - is not a law of nature. It's a social construct. In the beginning of the industrial revolution everybody worked 12 hours a day without the weekend. Labor movement (or was it Henry Ford? I don't know) pushed for shorter working week. It didn't seem to destroy the economy. So I don't see why we can't make it even shorter. And HN crowd, as indeed relatively well off, can lead the way. As more and more people work "part" time it might change the popular perception and eventually the rest of the society and regulation might follow.
  - jlokier 8y ago
    Thanks. I completely agree with this.