Fun fact: Obama got his JD in constitutional law from Harvard. Wonder how much that has to do with this administration’s war on the university.
Why do you think that would be relevant?
Readit Newsanthonygd commented on Is Trump Trying to Destroy Harvard? wsj.com/opinion/donald-tr... · Posted by u/Bostonian
anthonygd commented on Tech CEO: 4-day work week didn't hurt or help productivity theregister.com/2025/04/1... · Posted by u/rntn
> You can't just say, as you do, that employees might as well go home since they aren't working.
Why not?
As long as you are satisfied with the productivity of that employee, what does it really matter if they produce their output in 10 hours or 40?
I get that the idea is that "if they can do this in 10 hours, then in 40 hours they should produce 4x as much!" But that's clearly not reality. All that happens is that once a worker's capacity is tapped out, they find workplace-acceptable ways to sandbag
Employers can seethe about it all they want but that's the reality
> As long as you are satisfied with the productivity of that employee, what does it really matter if they produce their output in 10 hours or 40?
I have different expectations depending on whether you worked 10 or 40 hours. The _reality_ is that you and your employer need to come to an agreement on expectations.
anthonygd commented on Broligarchy does not build civilization not-a-tech-bro.ghost.io/b... · Posted by u/saevarom
Hardly bankrupt, but: none of this is going to make a difference without cutting into the big pie of military spending which is pork-barreled to individual constituencies. Or the large amount spent on retirees because they're an important class of voters who have no employment income. Or putting up taxes.
There's no excuse for repeating this. It takes seconds to see where the money actually goes:
https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/feder...
anthonygd commented on Judge tells agencies to restore webpages and data apnews.com/article/trump-... · Posted by u/petethomas
> He said that the judiciary can't check the "legitimate power" of the executive.
Where the president decides what is legitimate or constitutional. It’s a fig leaf.
There fundamentally is going to be conflict in any system of checks and balances. Neither the SCOTUS nor POTUS get to unilaterally decide the limits.
Trump hasn't been following convention, but that doesn't mean he's wrong. We also can't just assume he's right. Having the 3 branches hash out a balance is perfectly reasonable and confirms the system is working as intended.
anthonygd commented on Musk says he is working to shut down "beyond repair" USAID reuters.com/world/us/musk... · Posted by u/TechTechTech
I’m not on the left but I know what fascism is, and this is both the same strategy and same ideology. The only reason I can think of to say it’s not is if you genuinely want fascism- but are worried the negative connotations of the label might prevent it from succeeding.
They’re openly using the publicly disclosed strategies of fascist blogger and author Curtis Yarvin for example- he was invited to the inauguration as a guest of honor.
If you know what fascism is then you are nearly alone in the world. Read over the Wikipedia definition of fascism and you'll find it starts with a comparison to "nailing jelly to the wall".
The most solid explanation is in this part: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism#Fascist_as_a_pejorativ...
We are on the brink of a fascist dictatorship and hardly anyone is noticing or taking it seriously.
It is extremely difficult to take seriously.
anthonygd commented on JPMorgan Workers Ponder Union in Wake of Return-to-Office Mandate barrons.com/articles/jpmo... · Posted by u/yesthis
> If every single office job went remote, what's the point of a city like New York. Who's going to willingly pay $6,000 for an apartment, ride the trains for over an hour a day, if you can just sit at home in a much cheaper city .
Yeah, but that's the heart of the problem here. The suburbs that many flocked to when WFH became acceptable are largely subsidized by city income. Cities are largely funded by employers paying hefty taxes to operate within them. Non-negligible portions of municipal budgets are also funded by small businesses that cannot exist without people working centrally somewhere.
Until municipal governments figure out a different operating model, I don't think any major city can survive big companies pulling out en masse unless your desired end state looks like Detroit circa 2000.
> I go to work in exchange for currency, which is required to acquire goods and services. All this other crap, all these holiday parties, all of this let's dance in diversity videos, no that's not what I'm here for .
What of the people whose jobs aren't WFH compatible? "They get what they get?"
> What of the people whose jobs aren't WFH compatible? "They get what they get?"
What's your proposal here? Should I be forced into the office because it increases the chances I'll buy coffee instead of making it at home?
Macro economic changes are always painful. This is a gross simplification, but cities exist because of an economic network effect based on proximity. Network effects tend to be somewhat stable because they tend to change slowly, but they do change.
anthonygd commented on JPMorgan Workers Ponder Union in Wake of Return-to-Office Mandate barrons.com/articles/jpmo... · Posted by u/yesthis
There is no universal answer to RTO vs WFH.
What is abhorrent is employers changing these terms as if they're trivial. We probably need legal protections treating swapping workplace requirements as requiring someone to relocate or accept lower pay.
> If every single office job went remote, what's the point of a city like New York
You really don't see the value of New York beyond its office buildings?
> it's a big club and you ain't in it. The powers that be one as many people in office chairs as possible, so they're real estate holdings appreciate in value
This is a Bay Area conspiracy theory that doesn't make a lot of sense, particularly when the cost and need for layoffs explains the effect more parsimoniously.
I agree with most of what you wrote, but not the implication that NYC value is obvious.
>You really don't see the value of New York beyond its office buildings?
I like to visit NYC a couple times a year, but absolutely don't want to live there. If the number of people who physically work there goes down, so will the reasons it's nice to visit.
I don't think I can properly explain my thought process here, but I do think of big cities as anachronistic and little inhuman. All those nice things in a city depend on a large number of lower income people being forced to live there by economic opportunity. That's not necessarily bad but frequently lower income residents don't get to enjoy the services they provide.
I say anachronistic because as people increase in economic freedom, their desires adjust and they frequently move, e.g. everything else being equal people will choose a 700 sq.ft. apartment over a 180 sq.ft. apartment. If the ratio of high income to low income residents shifts too far in either direction, cities go through a painful re-balancing process that may or may not land on it being good or pleasant (by some subjective standards) place afterwards.