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>> And if one factory can churn out X steel widgets and another X -20% because they work only 4 days per week The number of widgets produced and the price aske

>> And if one factory can churn out X steel widgets and another X -20% because they work only 4 days per week The number of widgets produced and the price asked for them is not a function of workdays. You’d need to control for quality of widget produced - and since buyers are human that may mean perceived quality rather than some absolute assessment of quality. You’d need to control for location & distance to market/customer for each widget produced. You’d need to control for efficiency of production process. You’d need to control for… you get the point. The only possible way your idea could stand would be if all else was held equal - and that’s simply not possible outside of horse shit models. Models can be useful, but not like this. This is a BS way to think about an economic model.

FirmwareBurner 3y ago
>You’d need to control for… you get the point. Exactly. And most companies and factories in the west have already optimized for all these factors to get maximum output on a 5 day work week. Moving to a 4 day workweek would be an automatic production loss and therefore a loss on economic competitiveness compared top those still on 5. What you're talking about, companies who can lower working hours without loosing productivity and competitiveness are very few and far between, usually world champions who have a captive market to themselves like Nvidia, ASML, Airbus, high end service jobs, etc, but that's only a microscopic share of the total amount of players on the market. The rest are firing on all cylinders trying to overtake or catch up to those established market players, and if you ever worked at a startup, it usually means longer hours, not fewer. >This is a BS way to think about an economic model. What's the better way? If all companies could get the same levels of productivity form 4 days a weeks from 5 why haven't they done that already?
- CraigJPerry 3y ago
  >> have already optimized for all these factors Factories and companies start and die all the time. The idea that some steady state equilibrium exists is only in these BS models. >> production loss and therefore a loss on economic competitiveness Apple is less competitive because it makes less iPhones than Samsung? >> What's the better way? Stop pretending models predict reality perfectly.
  - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
    >Stop pretending models predict reality perfectly. But what it reality to you and how do you describe it if not by models?
    - CraigJPerry 3y ago
      >> But what it reality to you Complicated. It’s rare for any interesting scenario not to be complicated. >> how do you describe it By aiming for honesty and accuracy but with enough humility to realise these absolutes are unachievable in most interesting cases. To make it more concrete in this particular case It means being careful to state assumptions is essential.
      - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
        But you haven't described anything, you just said it's complicated.

FirmwareBurner 3y ago

>You’d need to control for… you get the point. Exactly. And most companies and factories in the west have already optimized for all these factors to get maximum output on a 5 day work week. Moving to a 4 day workweek would be an automatic production loss and therefore a loss on economic competitiveness compared top those still on 5. What you're talking about, companies who can lower working hours without loosing productivity and competitiveness are very few and far between, usually world champions who have a captive market to themselves like Nvidia, ASML, Airbus, high end service jobs, etc, but that's only a microscopic share of the total amount of players on the market. The rest are firing on all cylinders trying to overtake or catch up to those established market players, and if you ever worked at a startup, it usually means longer hours, not fewer. >This is a BS way to think about an economic model. What's the better way? If all companies could get the same levels of productivity form 4 days a weeks from 5 why haven't they done that already?

CraigJPerry 3y ago
>> have already optimized for all these factors Factories and companies start and die all the time. The idea that some steady state equilibrium exists is only in these BS models. >> production loss and therefore a loss on economic competitiveness Apple is less competitive because it makes less iPhones than Samsung? >> What's the better way? Stop pretending models predict reality perfectly.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  >Stop pretending models predict reality perfectly. But what it reality to you and how do you describe it if not by models?
  - CraigJPerry 3y ago
    >> But what it reality to you Complicated. It’s rare for any interesting scenario not to be complicated. >> how do you describe it By aiming for honesty and accuracy but with enough humility to realise these absolutes are unachievable in most interesting cases. To make it more concrete in this particular case It means being careful to state assumptions is essential.
    - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
      But you haven't described anything, you just said it's complicated.