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Comment by hgs3 | Hacker News Reader

Maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t think a four day work week is radical enough. A web developer today is easily 5x more productive than a web developer 30 years ago: we have off the shelf databases, frameworks, and a huge ecosystem of open source libraries. If I can produce the same output as a web developer 30 years ago, but at 1/5th the time, then why am I not working 1 day a week for the same pay? What’s the point of modern technology if it can’t free us up to enjoy life? Same goes for workers in every industry that have benefited from technology.

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For real. Let's start at 6 hour, 1 day work weeks, and Capital can negotiate to 8 hours/2 days from there if they don't feel like the cogs are busy enough. Because you know if we start at proposing a 4 day week, it's gonna be "well how about half days every other Friday?" Let's earn some real keep here.

I don't understand why you deserve a huge raise in pay because someone else developed an off-the-shelf database. Investments into capital and tech go to the investor, not to you. That would be a complete mis-alignment of incentives. Why would anyone invent, develop, pay for, or work on improvements if all the benefits went to you? Should accountants have gotten massive raises across the board when Microsoft Excel was invented and they didn't have to use paper any longer?

You're not more productive than a web developer in 1995, your tools are.

> Investments into capital and tech go to the investor, not to you.

I hear what you're saying about investors needing a return on their investment, but investors only exist because modern human society runs on money and the people doing the real work don't have enough of it. Human beings will naturally develop tools and technology with or without money or investors because doing so improves our lives. The problem with our modern world is we are no longer building tools to improve our life, but rather turn a profit. Any "improvements" we've had are merely a side effect of the unnatural need for money rather than a better life. I'd argue we'd see more innovation if people had more free time to innovate rather than waste their lives in corporate slavery.

you don't think something like Microsoft Excel improves people's lives?

If I worked in an office 9-5 making 5 paper spreadsheets for $100 a day and with Microsoft Excel I sit in the same office 9-5 making 50 spreadsheets at $100 a day, then no it did not make my life better. Excel may have allowed me to churn out more spreadsheets, but my paycheck hasn't increased and I'm still working the same hours. The only one reaping the benefits of my extra productivity are the fat cats.

probably because you're making 5x what a web developer made 30 years ago.

unionize!

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