mechoman444

I I wouldn’t vote JD Vance to be poop smith in my medieval Castle latrine.

First of all, I have no reason to believe that you work in the exact kind of environment you’re using to support your argument.

I can just as easily claim that I work in an industry that absolutely proves a four-day workweek will not function. The difference is that I am actually offering reasons why it would not work in many sectors, while you have largely refused to address those concerns directly.

I’ve also freely admitted that a four-day workweek is possible in some industries. My position has never been that it is impossible everywhere. My position is that it is not practical for most industries.

A four-day workweek is not the solution to the broader problems workers are facing. The real issues are stagnant wages, rising costs of living, and the fact that the federal minimum wage is still only $7.25 per hour. Even the $15 per hour standard many companies have adopted is no longer enough to live comfortably in much of America. We have privatized healthcare, skyrocketing housing costs, and politicians who are allowed to trade stocks while in office, which is insane to me.

The amount of time people work is often less important than how much they are paid for that time. If wages increased substantially and people could actually afford a decent standard of living, far fewer people would be complaining about working five, six, or even seven days a week.

There is also a widespread misconception among managers that productivity means employees must be productive every second they are on the clock. In reality, what matters is the amount of work completed, not whether every minute of every day is being maximized.

A four-day workweek may be a viable option in certain industries, but it is not a universal solution. And the fact that you personally have not encountered problems related to billable hours, staffing, scheduling, or labor coverage is not evidence that those problems do not exist.

Did you even read the questions I asked?

I do not work hourly. Where is that missing 20% of revenue supposed to come from? Are employers supposed to magically generate it out of thin air?

I already complete seven work orders a day. If I lose a day or two of work each week, I would have to increase that to nine or more work orders per day just to make up the difference. No matter how you slice it, I would lose a significant amount of income on a four-day work week.

We cannot simply raise our flat rates either. This is a competitive industry. If we raise prices too much, another company will undercut us and take the business. That is how markets work.

And you still have not answered one of my main questions: what about the companies that want or need to operate more than four days a week?

I will freely admit that there are monopolies and conglomerates in certain sectors of the economy. But competition absolutely still exists throughout much of the private sector, especially among small businesses.

There is no giant nationwide conglomerate dominating plumbing, electrical work, or appliance repair. Those industries are overwhelmingly made up of small companies competing with each other.

What frustrates me is that you are not actually addressing the concerns being raised. You keep focusing on a few specific points while ignoring the larger practical questions about labor costs, revenue, staffing, competition, and business viability.

A four-day work week may work in some industries. I do not dispute that. But saying it is broadly feasible across most industries in America ignores the economic realities many businesses and workers face.

The work week we have today did not appear out of nowhere. It developed because of a large number of economic, logistical, and operational factors.

???

???

And you seem to have a problem understanding basic economics.

your employer would be required to raise your hourly rate such that you would be paid the same as you were in the old scheme.

And where would this additional money come from? In my line of work I get paid per work order closed. And that money comes from a fixed flat rate we charge. If our flat rate went up a small company would swoop in with a lower flat rate and would be willing to work more than 4 days a week.

Academically, there is little difference in a 4 vs 5 day instruction week, but certain non-academic markers improve, including teacher retention rates.

So do you pay teachers for the amount of time they work decreasing how little money they already make? There is a reason why schools operate the way they do and it’s not because the four day or five day work week is better or worse they operate with the fact that parents work. That’s why school starts so early. So parents can get their kids ready for school and not be late to work. What are parents supposed to do with their kids if they have a free day? Pay more for daycare or a babysitter? How would you cover that cost? As a parent I heavily rely on the school schedule to keep my kids safe while I work. But you’re right academically there is no difference between going to school for 4 days or 5. Which apparently is the only metric your little brain has come up with.

The main driver of a 4 day week is that people are at least as productive in those four days

I once again agree and the amount of companies and industries that can support this kind of throughput is few and far between. I noticed you glossed over those parts. Salaried office workers comprise only a small fraction of the work force in America. Office workers aren’t keeping this country afloat. It’s plumbers and electricians and garbage men. Industries that cannot adopt a 4 day work week.

As long as rubes like you believe that you just have to grind harder and your millions will come, there will be no four-day week

This is what pissed me off the most. Where did you draw this conclusion from? Did I say anything like I think we should grind harder and pull ourselves up by our bootstraps? You think I don’t see the massive wealth inequality especially in America? That people are literally dying on the job day to day? Or the pro corporation administration currently in power in the US? We’re fucked. We’re all fucked. As a four day work week isn’t the solution. Which is why I brought up the fact that we live in a Scarcity-Based economy, which you once again glossed over conveniently.

As for the part about McCarthy I’ll leave with my regular disclaimer before this becomes the topic of conversation: Socialism refers to collective ownership of the means of production. Social democracy refers to a capitalist market economy supplemented by welfare programs, labor protections, and public services. The two terms are not interchangeable despite frequent misuse on the internet. You are describing and advocating for social democracy not socialism.

https://youtube.com/shorts/zMmjKRettxA

So some people are going to work four days a week, but management is still working six?

Are companies supposed to double their workforce to cover the missing day? Who pays for all those additional employees? If employees are only working four days a week, are they taking a pay cut? Or are businesses expected to pay the same wages for fewer hours?

What about small businesses? Where are they supposed to find the additional revenue? And how are they supposed to compete with companies that continue operating on a traditional five-day schedule?

What about people like me who are paid based on completed work orders? Do I suddenly need to complete 14 work orders a day just to make the same income? Or do we charge homeowners significantly more to make up the difference?

And what about business owners themselves? Do they only work four days a week, too?

Every time this idea comes up, people talk about the benefits, but they rarely explain how the math is supposed to work in industries where revenue is directly tied to labor and hours worked.

No it isn’t. NO IT ISN’T. The overwhelming majority of people do not work salaried jobs.

In the industry I work in, I would end up on the street if I only worked four days a week.

Entire trades such as appliance repair, construction, and especially manufacturing would struggle under a four-day work week.

Every time I see this argument, it boils my blood.

What about teachers? Are students only supposed to attend school four days a week? There are not enough teachers to run multiple overlapping schedules throughout the week.

What about competition? Are we going to prohibit companies from operating five days a week? If one company switches to four days, another will simply step in and say, “We’ll work five.”

As long as our economy remains based on scarcity, there will be no universal four-day work week.

Now go ahead and downvote me and tell me how great socialism is.

Tchaikovsky!

I see that “GTFO” is a major portion of your vocabulary.

I recommend reading some books. I’d start with green eggs and ham by Dr. Seuss. It’s fairly complicated. It has some rhyme schemes that can really mess with your head.

Right. Corporations do not pay taxes on income; they pay taxes on profits, and the tax code gives them significant flexibility in determining what counts as profit. Loans are not taxed. “Buy, borrow, die” is legal. We have weak antitrust enforcement. Politicians can trade stocks despite occupying positions that give them access to information the public does not have. Competition in many industries has declined, reducing incentives to prioritize consumers. We even have private healthcare.

So what is your point?

Companies, especially in the tech industry, have historically operated at a loss during their first several years. Even after becoming established, a 4% profit margin is often considered respectable. Revenue and profit are not the same thing, and investing heavily for growth is a normal business practice.

I was talking about people criticizing LLMs while clearly knowing very little about them. The bandwagon effect on this platform is strong. Many people dislike LLMs, call everything “AI,” and often do not understand the underlying technology, the economics behind it, or the fact that there are multiple companies competing in the space. I push back when I see criticism based on misunderstandings rather than facts.

Tell me you don’t know nothing about business without telling me you don’t know nothing about business.

No no stop. I know what you’re thinking. You don’t, relax. Take it easy.

Yes, you are correct. Many companies, especially in the tech industry, lose money for the first three to five years after opening.

What you have below are people who do not understand basic business concepts, such as the difference between revenue and profit, let alone capital investment.

You are also contending with people who hate something they do not understand. They call LLMs “AI,” dislike Sam Altman and OpenAI, and often do not even realize there are other companies and models that, depending on the metric, can outperform ChatGPT. They are hating for the sake of hating while disguising it as enlightenment. It is quite frustrating, and I push back against it whenever I can.

At the end of the day, people need something to hate, and right now LLMs and data centers have become convenient targets.

That is not to say there is nothing wrong with the industry. There is. Data centers consume enormous resources, and the constant drive for profit creates plenty of legitimate concerns.

My point is simply that many of these people do not actually understand what they are arguing against in the first place.

Oh my God, who cares what her prison conditions are like? She’s still in prison.

Anyone who has done time will tell you: time is time.

All I care about is that she’s no longer in society. She was selling children to politicians for sexual exploitation. How she spends her time in prison is not something I’m interested in at all.

O… Gmail.

But I’ve had it for so long. I was literally a beta tester way back when.

On the other hand I have an android phone so it’s Gmail or bust. There’s no real way to use an android with it. And since I need email for extremely basic correspondence I don’t bother moving to a different one.

Ya that sucks. Various businesses and organizations probably have contracts without work to use exclusively their software…

Well that was definitely brief. 😅

Who the hell uses Outlook???

Not sure what this is. Can you provide a brief synopsis?

I use Waterfox for almost everything because it has that Chrome feel and speed to it.

I do, on occasion, use Edge for websites that do not play nicely with Firefox. Most of those tend to be government websites, which unfortunately I have to deal with from time to time.

Dude. It takes like 10 minutes for the full migration. Export your bookmarks and import them to any other browser other than chrome. Jeez. Preferably Firefox.