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Comment by andrei_says_ | Hacker News Reader

How does the “economy” measure the billions of hours that are no longer wasted in commuting? The $millions not wasted on gas? The decrease in pollution? The increased quality of life of millions of remote workers who spend the extra hours working out, doing yoga, preparing healthy meals or spending a bit more time with family?

Or, you know, working a bit longer for their employer?

If landlords’ profit is the only measure then yes, this is a difficult time for commercial landlords who refuse to adapt in any way.

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This is prepping the ground for a major bailout of commercial real estate because of its moribund effect on the economy.

Mostly just starting the chant for bailing out the really, really wealthy and those who benefit from CRE. (City governments, insurance companies, mega corps, and commercial banks).

This is not a public outcry, but watch how they do it by creating a story then an echo chamber, making it part of the "recovery", blah, blah. CRE will get a fat earmark in some recession funding, just watch.

Exactly, this isn’t about the economy, it’s about lobbying and PR for particular private interests (though there are effects on the broader economy)

Economists are the successor to court-clergymen: interpret arcane texts no one else has the time to read in order to justify the king's actions.

I assume you know this already from the way you put the word on scare quotes, but for everyone else: there is no "economy" in a sense that it even can be said to be good or bad. There are only people and transactions (on a spectrum between freely negotiated and forcibly imposed) and the people are either better off or worse off after each transaction. Ideally, everyone involved is better off after a transaction, including bystanders, and no one is coerced into anything, but this standard is not always (or ever?) met.

Anybody who tells you the economy is good or bad is priming you for some other form of propaganda.

all else being equal the economy prefers you spend all that money. As long as there's a lot of surplus money floating around, better to get more of it moving.

Less commuting will eventually equilibrate, one hopes, to: * lower $ and psychological overhead on jobs that used to commute * meaning more jobs and businesses get to exist * wages might go down due to competitive pressure, or might go up, depending on the shape of the landscape * some of the money and saved will be diverted to other activities like the things you listed * or things get worse! who knows! it's path-dependent!

Excellent point. Seems like NPR is just parrotting Bloomberg on this point and not considering any positive benefits. I keep hearing that in the Pacific Northwest, office buildings are converting into apartments to increase housing supply, but I haven't seen any news organization confirm it. If true, that should be a cause celebree for NPR.

Or the new business popping up where people now are? It's not a zero sum game - but a huge loss for all the 15 minute city cultists.

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