5 ms·

Yes, commercial real estate is hurting but that is only one component of the bigger picture. Everyone in the surrounding area finds it desperately hard to make

Yes, commercial real estate is hurting but that is only one component of the bigger picture. Everyone in the surrounding area finds it desperately hard to make ends meet. The restaurants and cafes, the minimarts, the cleaners, janitors, security, various stores: clothing, bookshops, bakeries etc. All these people lose their jobs and for the small independent Stores where the owners have poured in their savings they lose all that, There are a lot of positives with working from home but dont forget about the wider repercussions,

obscura 2y ago
Yes, this is undoubtedly also a factor. Cities offer incentives to these large companies to open offices because they have an impact on their surroundings (see [1]). Workers support surrounding businesses; with the workers at home, these businesses must surely struggle. I can't imagine that the cities are not putting pressure on the large companies to bring workers back to the offices. [1] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/heres-what-cities-are-offering-amazon-to-host-its-new-headquarters https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/heres-what...
munksbeer 2y ago
> There are a lot of positives with working from home but dont forget about the wider repercussions The issue I have with that type of argument is you're moralising on causing harm to one group of people to limit harm to another group. Who gets to decide how do do that? And then you could also moralise by saying the commuting causes huge amounts of pollutants which cause actual harm to people's health. And the stress of the commute. And the lack of family time. Etc.
surgical_fire 2y ago
Wouldn't opportunities arise to where people live instead? Things would just not be as concentrated in the areas surrounding commercial buildings.
EasyMark 2y ago
But why is that my problem? The restaurants that are closer to me will get more of my business as will closer businesses to me. Of course some will get hurt and some will get helped, that’s just economics.

obscura 2y ago

Yes, this is undoubtedly also a factor. Cities offer incentives to these large companies to open offices because they have an impact on their surroundings (see [1]). Workers support surrounding businesses; with the workers at home, these businesses must surely struggle. I can't imagine that the cities are not putting pressure on the large companies to bring workers back to the offices. [1] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/heres-what-cities-are-offering-amazon-to-host-its-new-headquarters https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/heres-what...

munksbeer 2y ago

> There are a lot of positives with working from home but dont forget about the wider repercussions The issue I have with that type of argument is you're moralising on causing harm to one group of people to limit harm to another group. Who gets to decide how do do that? And then you could also moralise by saying the commuting causes huge amounts of pollutants which cause actual harm to people's health. And the stress of the commute. And the lack of family time. Etc.

surgical_fire 2y ago

Wouldn't opportunities arise to where people live instead? Things would just not be as concentrated in the areas surrounding commercial buildings.

EasyMark 2y ago

But why is that my problem? The restaurants that are closer to me will get more of my business as will closer businesses to me. Of course some will get hurt and some will get helped, that’s just economics.