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htag

The author talks about three data points:

1. Is there less restaurant business?

2. Does it hurt city real estate?

3. People spend more time with family.

I'm much more interested in other points about how remote work has an impact on the economy.

* How do cities and states attract well paid remote workers? Who are the winners and losers of this transition.

* How does remote work impact wages? A programmer in Nashville was probably paid less than one in San Fransisco. How is remote work impacting that discrepancy?

* How is remote work impacting residential real estate? Are home owner rates climbing as people flee the expensive cities? How is it impacting which homes are more desirable?

* How is remote work impacting energy usage?

* How is remote work impacting in office jobs for the same type of work? Are in office jobs paying a premium for labor over remote? Do employers see the increased investment as paying off? Do investors?

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> How do cities and states attract well paid remote workers.

To me WFH aligns the incentives exactly right in this case. You attract workers by being a good place to live. Have stuff human people care about -- parks, playgrounds, schools, restaurants, nightlife, recreation, arts, theater, music, food, yada yada. Instead of right now where the strat is to get a critical mass of well-ish-paying businesses and then everything else is extra. Communities will form based on what people do outside work which sounds like actual heaven.

You do see the irony that jobs at places like restaurants and theaters cannot be done remotely, right?

There is an "infinite" amount of people that need a job and can't do something remotely (because they are not too "techyy" for that). Right now, they have to 1.5H commute from Jersey to Manhattan because that's where the job is. They are not originally from NJ but that's where they found the cheapest rent.

I'm pretty sure they'd be happy to serve the Digital Nomads or the Remote worker that picked small town, out of no where.

Out of curiosity, why are you sure of that? Because me, personally, I have my doubts that the kind of person who wants to be a NYC bartender also wants to be an Iowa City Bartender.

I know a few friends who lives/lived in Jersey and took long commute to Manhattan. They are not "living in the city" by any shot; their relationship ends at 7-8PM when their shift ends and they have to take their long commute back.

Manhattan is attractive because it's much easier (at least pre-2019) to get a job there when you have little skills (a bartender can actually be a skilled job and requires certain connections) and need cash fast. There is also a community of people in the same situation (especially if you are a new immigrant).

Perhaps, but there's also plenty of NYC bartenders who don't particularly want to be bartenders, it's just a job they managed to get and it's what they're doing to pay the bills.

>There is an "infinite" amount of people that need a job and can't do something remotely (because they are not too "techyy" for that).

There are tons of jobs you can do remotely, without being good with tech. I will wager that most people working low paid manual jobs today have the full potential to handle a remote job. They just haven't had or made that opportunity.

The restaurants and theaters don't need to be a hour's drive away from where the workers and customers live.

US zoning is shitty because it doesn't allow stores or restaurants in residential areas. But if that could be fixed, you could have a corner store and a diner/restaurant within walking distance of your home.

There's no irony there... either those businesses that require local staff exist because they place they're in is a interesting and/or good place to live, or the place they're in is an obscenely-expensive shithole and they just won't exist.

As an aside, it is quite curious that we choose to say jobs at places like restaurants and theatres cannot be done remotely. Those are the kinds of jobs that are remote (faraway, distant)!

(I’m the author)

This is an underrated comment. These are good threads to pull on in future posts - thanks.

Thanks. I look forward to reading what data you can find and your commentary on them.

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