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Comment by pkaye | Hacker News Reader

What percent of workers do work that can be done remotely?

>What percent of workers do work that can be done remotely?

Not a huge number, but that's all you need to support a small town economy. It's like the plight of the rust belt -- you had small communities that relied on manufacturing job to support the local retail and services jobs. When those manufacturing jobs evaporated due to outsourcing those small towns imploded.

What percent of remote workers do their shopping at the local mom and pop vs. online? I would expect this is a much higher rate than non remote workers who are commuting past that mom and pop store every day, where it would be convenient to stop in and grab something on their way to work or home. Remote workers in a rural town have little reason to leave their house and go to town, which in a rural town might itself be a 10-15 min one way drive on unlit (and frequently unplowed in winter) roads that typically lack a sidewalk.

Rural town is an oxymoron.

There is a big distinction between rural and towns. Even towns of 1-5k people are surprisingly dense since most were built out before urban sprawl became a trend.

I don't know, but I suspect for the readership of Hacker News at least it's pretty high. (And I suspect there's a lot more people who can picture themselves working from home indefinitely than if you had asked the question a year ago.)

Not all jobs can be done remotely, but for the ones that can, the various impediments seem to be dropping away.

Currently, or 5 years from now? Anyone working in the "services" industry, which is most of the United States, can work from home. And if the laws ever change for restaurants and auto-repair shops, I suspect you might see that being done from home as well.

What kind of restaurant job do you see being done from home?

I'd guess that user oedoedxef is referring to running a customer-facing business (a diner, an auto repair shop, or whatever) out of a primary residence, whether that means living in a commercially-zoned property or doing commerce in a residentially-zoned property or perhaps eliminating the distinction entirely.

That's my guess as well, but that's a very, very strange definition of working from home.

Why is it strange? Why should us software developers be allowed to work from home, but others who need a livelihood and provide valuable services to society should not be allowed to produce goods from home?

After all, dentists and tailors see clients in their homes, and people who sell t-shirts online often manufacture and ship the goods from their home.

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