This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Corroborating evidence from Canada:
Canada's labour market is much slacker than the United States. Coming out of the pandemic, immigration to the U.S. increased (especially illegal immigration best as we can tell), but in Canada there was an enormous surge in immigration to keep wages low and slow inflation. We brought in 3 million people in 3 years and our unemployment rate is now 6.6% compared with 4.2% in the U.S. In some parts of the country about 25% of the 20-29 age cohort is Indian temporary workers now, which is a story for another time. Think Springfield Ohio, but literally everywhere.
The upshot is the effective end of remote work and the squeezing of hybrid except, possibly, in the federal civil service. I'm back 4 days a week now as are all the people in my wider circle. Traffic is back to pre-pandemic levels.
Management has always hated remote work. Part of it is a skill issue around learning how to manage people remotely, but a key factor is this: remote work increases the variance of individual contributions. Some people are unaffected. Some people do more: they spend the time they would have spent commuting working and with fewer distractions their output goes up. Some people need the proximity of management to get them to do anything and spend their days at home cooking, cleaning, wasting time, etc.
Firms struggle to identify who that latter group is and even where they can see them, they can't bring themselves to fire these employees or disproportionately reward the people whose productivity increases. They can't accept the status quo for morale reasons. So instead everyone comes back.
Its such a shame because Canada, more than any other major western country, has had economic growth concentrated in its major cities over the past 20 years. You can see this in our real estate prices and for a young Canadian, the deal on offer is terrible: no jobs outside the big cities, no homes within them. Remote work offered a way through, but now its over.
Why is this so true? I would be happy to do this, but it seems it’s anathema to most companies. Any explanations?
I think there is widespread 'firing aversion' because:
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link