← Back to context

Comment by wqaatwt

7 months ago

Both points seem pretty detached from reality? The majority of workers obviously are not working 15 hours a day..

I am wondering where you got your facts from. You are saying that of the majority if people on earth got double the wage (work 8 hours and get paid the equivalent of working for 16) they would live a human life. You have new yorkers in mind maybe? Or londoners?

A source for you and the classic HN bubble living downvoters

44% Of global population lives under the line of poverty:

https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview

  • You can look up the average/median working hours I guess.. no country is even remotely close to 15hours per day.

    > A source for you

    Seems tangential to your original claim ?

    • Seems, but isn't. The original argument I criticized says:

      People dont work less because they will make so much more money that they just don't want to leave it on the table.

      I said: it is more realistic to say that people don't work less because even if they worked for 15 hours they would still not make a living wage.

      The difference: The first argument says people work more because they are greedy. My argurment says people work more because they can't survive if they work less.

      > no country is even remotely close to 15hours per day.

      People don't only work for what their legal framework says. Apart from working un-registered overtime that can go up to 9-10-12 hours, many people also work second jobs, participate in gig-work and such. Easily adding up to 12-14 hours a day, and factor in 6days out of 7days per week instead of your regular 5.

      Yes, 15 hours may be an exaggeration, but not by a lot. And definitely closer to the reality of things than what Kayne said.