Not really.
But kinda.
Hmmm.
Recently became a lurker on Reddit, familial cesspool of thought, opinion, and whatiffery.
Fascinating lot, that. Particularly fond of the sub “AITA” … why yes, yes you are. Overwhelming so.
Anyhoo, one sub discusses RTO, with the consensus almost universally WTAF. State workers in Texas, California, Minnesota, Ohio (oh Ohio) are all being forced back into the office (non)workspace, usually for the purposes of “collaboration, cohesion, and culture” (watyehno) but in reality?
It’s the money, stoopits.
Commercial real estate took the biggest hit during the plandemic, what with the prior working model for the hivemind office dwellers relying on butts-in-seats … coffee shops, lunch counters, happy afterhours bars, alladat. And when the people left, the businesses fleecing those people suffered – greatly, and in large numbers. Coffee does not cost $9. A $13 sandwich is simply an offense.
AND and people who work from home do not need to commute … there goes those gas taxes.
Even public transport (buses, trains, private/public cars) took a hit. Might need to get the kiddos to class/extracurriculars but most parents send kids to schools/activities located closer to home than homes are situated near offices, so there’s that.
Methinks it all comes down to (1) money, and (2) control. Even with keystroke metrics and on-camera demands, there is just something about being able to hover over a cubicle á la Lumbergh or intrude into an office, put eyes on an employee and dictate behavior hands-on.
Can always not get that email, sosorry missed that call, but face-to-face?
Mmmm/yaaaah. Red stapler and all.
Speaking of … going to be interesting to witness the increase of incidents re workplace violence in the next year or so … Folks having had enough, decided to kirk out all over everyone trapped alongside them.
Because, ultimately, if one knows/has a paydate, then one is a wage slave. Full stop.
Saw a commercial many moons ago showing a person working out then suddenly getting a phone alert … oh look. Money. It was payday, and didn’t even notice.
Basically, it was an ad for investing … how thinking about money allows for not thinking about money.
Recent article in … something, somewhere … referenced the first long-term study re UBI (universal basic income, or guaranteed not starving/homeless money) in Germany, and found that people actually did not work less but rather were able to prioritize living for pleasure rather than simply to avoid pain …
… less rat race/hamster wheel, more live-laugh-love/laugh-love-live, or whatever.
In short, a guaranteed basic income makes life suck less. Which is why it will never happen in the U.S.
The masters of mankind (oh them) are ruled by greed and the suffering of others. End convo.
They (oh them) do not want the ordinary, average, typical general wo/man to live out this temporary existence on the individual’s terms, with self-determined/directed/dedicated meaning, but rather on their terms, according to their whims, desires, and plans (oh them) {Hosea 12:7}
The masters of mankind approach the human experience like a zero-sum game / if others are winning at life, someone (oh them) must be losing. Kind of like this oh-so-stoopit tariff war. Which ‘Murrica will lose/is losing. The Orange Moron.
We got stuff, they got stuff. Let’s just swap stuff for stuff.
See? Happy. NO
If you are happy then I cannot be happy. So no happy for you.
Which leads back to RTO.
Big moneypits like Wall Street own $$$ in commercial real estate, which was (pre-plandemic) a good place to park some cash and make some money. Cheaper than residential property – not so many rules.
But commercial real estate relies on the Ponzi of other businesses supporting that business …
… butts-in-seats = $9 coffee, $30 lunches, boo-coo (yes yes “beaucoup” shaddup) costs to and fro.
And the economy loses all of that with WFH … which just happens to increase worker money, time, and happy. So this musts end.
Fun fact: Calgary (oh Canada, you sweet and crafty moose – elbows UP) figured it out.
In a joint public-private enterprise, the city brilliantly and simultaneously solved its forked problem of (1) too little housing and (2) too many empty offices by converting commercial to residential, putting grocery stores, gyms, and bowling alleys (cuz we need that!) on the ground floors, offices above, and apartments on top.
Live-work-play space, all in the same city block.
But rather than leap face first into the wall of progress, these antiquated, throw-back economic Luddites (looking at you Greasy Gav, Bozos, Hot Wheels, the Zuck, Coach Granpa, and – of course never forget – the oilymuskyfunk) think “collaboration-cohesion-culture” should trump (heh) the significant pay cut (‘cuz public employees make bank) and the interminable time suck.
The fact that the head of JPMorgan is named “diamond” is time-honored proof of the Almighty’s sense of irony … an overpriced rock elevated beyond all rational worth.
They are the lamplighters, the buggy-builders, the antebellum enslavers of the modern era.
Unable to adapt, and thus relegated to obscurity, stagnation, and ill-repute.
Unpaid remains the debt to innovation.
Technology coupled with the plandemic taught all societies that better alternatives were available to the working class … those who could WFH should remain there, so the essential professions that mandate an in-person, physical presence on-site (healthcare, education, construction, ER services, front-line fast food, etc.) have a better commute with fewer folks sharing the roads and public spaces, fewer accidents … fewer traffic tickets.
Win-win. NO
Zero sum. So back to cubicle hell. All of you.
“And the beatings will continue until morale improves.”
No wonder the birth rate continues to drop.
Would you want to be you, now?
Thought not.