5 ms·

Doubling your income would mean you can take 50% of your time off with the same income. Pretty sure that would change your life!

YZF 2y ago
It doesn't really work like that. The reality is that you can't work 50% of the time for half the salary (if that's what you mean). When you make more money you typically want a nicer place to live, maybe a nicer car, your standard of living will go up somewhat. Now to maintain that standard of living you're going to need to save more money. Maybe you have kids and you want to be able to pay for their education, or buy them a place to live... Maybe you're helping your family. Personally I could have "retired" a long while back if I wanted to have a lower standard of living and also take some risk. But I don't hate my work, I do things out of work as well, I prefer a nicer house and a nicer car, I'd probably be bored if I didn't work.
- brazzy 2y ago
  Developers in the USA earn far beyond the level where the lifestyle creep that you describe is so compelling that it makes any sense at all to say "you can't work 50% of the time for half the salary". A more solid factor is that companies don't want to hire part-time developers, because coordination overhead means twice the number of developers each working half as many hours are far less effective.
  - YZF 2y ago
    I meant it in that sense. Even if I wanted to I wouldn't be able to work 50% for half my salary (likely) because my employer would have a problem with that. For the reason you gave and others.
- yunohn 2y ago
  If anything, most tech company contracts are written the other way around - there is almost never overtime pay and any thinking/work done both within and outside work hours is completely owned by the company.
- BurningFrog 2y ago
  I have asked to work 4 day weeks at 80% of my salary a few times, and not had a problem. When I once asked for a 3 day week that was turned down. The other way to work 50% is to take a few months or years break between jobs. I've enjoyed doing that. It's certainly not for everyone.
GianFabien 2y ago
Typically with a higher income you taxation rate increases even more. So 50% more salary might only end up being 20% more in your hand.
- throwaway2037 2y ago
  > So 50% more salary might only end up being 20% more in your hand. Can you give an example of a tax regime where this would hold true? I find your example hard to believe.
  - ruszki 2y ago
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_tax https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_tax
    - consteval 2y ago
      Even under a progressive tax things don't work the way conservative fiscal armchair economists would like to have you believe. Poor people still, comparatively, spend more of their income to taxes. That's because poor people have to spend more of their income on direct consumption, i.e. not investment. If I'm poor I'm easily spending 90% of all my money on stuff for me, right now. If I'm rich that drops to 10%, and the rest goes towards stuff that isn't taxed. So, while income tax may favor the poor, sales tax very obviously favors the rich. The only reason a progressive tax exists is because rich people are so powerfully favored in modern tax systems, we need to try to bring them back in line to the burden poorer people face. Even still, poor people face more burden.
  - seafoam 2y ago
    http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2008/10/blog-post.html http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2008/10/blog-post.html
consteval 2y ago
> you can take 50% of your time off The economy and society isn't structured like this. I'd happily take half the pay I have now for half the time. But the only way to get that time is to make 10 dollars an hour flipping burgers.

YZF 2y ago

It doesn't really work like that. The reality is that you can't work 50% of the time for half the salary (if that's what you mean). When you make more money you typically want a nicer place to live, maybe a nicer car, your standard of living will go up somewhat. Now to maintain that standard of living you're going to need to save more money. Maybe you have kids and you want to be able to pay for their education, or buy them a place to live... Maybe you're helping your family. Personally I could have "retired" a long while back if I wanted to have a lower standard of living and also take some risk. But I don't hate my work, I do things out of work as well, I prefer a nicer house and a nicer car, I'd probably be bored if I didn't work.

brazzy 2y ago
Developers in the USA earn far beyond the level where the lifestyle creep that you describe is so compelling that it makes any sense at all to say "you can't work 50% of the time for half the salary". A more solid factor is that companies don't want to hire part-time developers, because coordination overhead means twice the number of developers each working half as many hours are far less effective.
- YZF 2y ago
  I meant it in that sense. Even if I wanted to I wouldn't be able to work 50% for half my salary (likely) because my employer would have a problem with that. For the reason you gave and others.
yunohn 2y ago
If anything, most tech company contracts are written the other way around - there is almost never overtime pay and any thinking/work done both within and outside work hours is completely owned by the company.
BurningFrog 2y ago
I have asked to work 4 day weeks at 80% of my salary a few times, and not had a problem. When I once asked for a 3 day week that was turned down. The other way to work 50% is to take a few months or years break between jobs. I've enjoyed doing that. It's certainly not for everyone.

GianFabien 2y ago

Typically with a higher income you taxation rate increases even more. So 50% more salary might only end up being 20% more in your hand.

throwaway2037 2y ago
> So 50% more salary might only end up being 20% more in your hand. Can you give an example of a tax regime where this would hold true? I find your example hard to believe.
- ruszki 2y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_tax https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_tax
  - consteval 2y ago
    Even under a progressive tax things don't work the way conservative fiscal armchair economists would like to have you believe. Poor people still, comparatively, spend more of their income to taxes. That's because poor people have to spend more of their income on direct consumption, i.e. not investment. If I'm poor I'm easily spending 90% of all my money on stuff for me, right now. If I'm rich that drops to 10%, and the rest goes towards stuff that isn't taxed. So, while income tax may favor the poor, sales tax very obviously favors the rich. The only reason a progressive tax exists is because rich people are so powerfully favored in modern tax systems, we need to try to bring them back in line to the burden poorer people face. Even still, poor people face more burden.
- seafoam 2y ago
  http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2008/10/blog-post.html http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2008/10/blog-post.html

consteval 2y ago

> you can take 50% of your time off The economy and society isn't structured like this. I'd happily take half the pay I have now for half the time. But the only way to get that time is to make 10 dollars an hour flipping burgers.