New York Mayor Eric Adams Calls Out NYC Workers To Return To Offices (nypost.com) 173
nray writes: Mayor Eric Adams called for people to revive the state's economy by getting "back to work" -- and said he was tired of hearing excuses about the COVID-19 pandemic. "New Yorkers, it's time to get back to work," Adams said during a speech at the state Democratic Committee's Nominating Convention. "You can't tell me you're afraid of COVID on Monday and I see you in a nightclub on Sunday." The crack sparked laughter among the audience at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel. Adams said that white-collar workers who continued working from home were hurting service-oriented businesses that rely on a steady stream of customers. "That accountant that's not in his office space is not going to the cleaners," he said. "It's not going to the restaurant. It's not allowing the cooks, the waiters, the dishwashers [to make a living]."
It. Because you are an atom of consumption, not a (Score:5, Insightful)
person. Fuck this moron.
Louis Rossmann (Score:4, Insightful)
Louis Rossmann explains it well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Yea, I like Louis, but it is amusing he's still so angry about NYC when he moved to New Hampshire to get away himself.
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Louis tells is like it is and tells it straight.
Respect.
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I hope he's going to bring back buggies too! Think of the buggy whip manufacturers who have been out of business so long! The farriers and wainwrights!
Why are NYC office workers using the subway and driving cars? They are not allowing these folks to make a living!
Re: It. Because you are an atom of consumption, n (Score:5, Insightful)
His other point about the night-club vs the in-office work is very valid. If you can live your personal life, you can live your normal life.
No it's not. If I only go out to the night-club one night every two weeks, the chances of me spreading the disease to others is zero because this time period gives the virus enough incubation time to become noticable.
If I instead go to the night-club and then immediately go into the office each day, plus hitting the dry cleaners and restaurants, I could be asymptomatically spreading the disease to everybody in my path.
This Eric Adams guy is just plain stupid. He's advocating for people to become super spreaders again. He should resign from office.
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You can spread it to everyone in the nightclub who then spreads it to everyone else.
You really can't have it both ways
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You can spread it to everyone in the nightclub who then spreads it to everyone else.
You really can't have it both ways
Not if it's been long enough since the last visit that it would have incubated and passed through the infectious phase, like they said. You could still catch it, but you couldn't spread it. You're basically doing something with some risk to yourself, then quarantining, then repeating. It's not ideal, but it's certainly better than going into the office every day and going to the office.
Re: It. Because you are an atom of consumption, n (Score:2)
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The office is the same group of people every day. The night club, while less often, is more contact points.
The critical difference is that if you follow a pattern of quarantining, then exposing yourself to people for too short of a period for a disease to incubute to the point it's contagious, then quarantine again and repeat, then you risk yourself, but you can't spread anything to other people. As I said, it's not ideal, but it's far, far more socially acceptable since you're mostly only risking yourself. If you get a bad case and are hospitalized, you could still be harming others by taking up a hospital bed
Re: It. Because you are an atom of consumption, n (Score:2)
Re: It. Because you are an atom of consumption, (Score:2)
your argument about once in two weeks is a fallacy. If you are going to night clubs, you are dating, going out with friends, shopping, going to comedy clubs, sports events, and gatherings. No one is going to a night club, and then quarantining for 13 days. No one.
I can count on one hand the number of times Iâ(TM)ve gone to the movies in the last two years. That is down from my usual 2-4 times a month. Meanwhile, Iâ(TM)m not doing the other things you mentioned. Believe it or not, some people can actually moderate their going out and such. In fact, some of us prefer to moderate social interactions. Being goaded into going to the office everyday with 500 to 1,000 people where I work is a lot different than going less than half a dozen movies, each with only
Re: It. Because you are an atom of consumption, n (Score:2)
You can spread it to everyone in the nightclub who then spreads it to everyone else.
No you can't, because the 1st time around you're not infected yet, and the 2nd time, if yiu were infected, you'd already know, since 2 weeks have passed.
You can only spread it if you went to office the other day and got it there without knowing it yet.
Re: It. Because you are an atom of consumption, n (Score:5, Interesting)
He's advocating for getting downtown running again.
If I instead go to the night-club and then immediately go into the office each day, plus hitting the dry cleaners and restaurants, I could be asymptomatically spreading the disease to everybody in my path.
This is, ultimately, the reason we're all going to be going back to the office, whether we want to or not: cities need office workers to go to work. They need them to go to the dry cleaners and the restaurants. They need them to spend money within the cities. If, instead, all that money gets spent where people actually live, the cities won't make money on taxes.
And that's why they're going to start leaning - hard - on companies to get people back into the office. Expect huge tax penalties for not getting everyone back into the office to make up for the tax loss.
We're going back into the office, whether we want to or not, because cities need office workers to shop there. If they can't get money from office workers, they'll start extracting it from companies, and companies will be faced with a simple question: is it cheaper to get rid of office space they currently hold or to require employees to come into the office? My money is on it being cheaper to bring everyone back to the office.
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We're going back into the office, whether we want to or not, because cities need office workers to shop there.
No, I'm not going back into the office. Fuck the cities. Their tax revenues are not my problem.
they're going to start leaning - hard - on companies to get people back into the office. Expect huge tax penalties for not getting everyone back into the office to make up for the tax loss.
Then the companies should pull out of these cities entirely. We're already working from remote. Now there is no reason why the company has to be headquartered in any particular location at all. What difference does it make if we move from Manhattan to somewhere with less tax overhead, as long as we can still get there over the net?
Re: It. Because you are an atom of consumption, n (Score:4, Insightful)
Because as we know, everything has to remain the same forever. So I presume next will be a call to stop using Amazon and Netflix? No more TV, even - get into that theatre to see a play or an opera. Want to listen to some music? Hire a string quartet and keep musicians employed.
Must dash. Horse needs more hay
Re: It. Because you are an atom of consumption, n (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do we need these cities?
They aren't a good way of living. Everyone trying to be in one place at the same time, it creates a lot of problems.
We can redevelop them into something better.
Re: It. Because you are an atom of consumption, n (Score:5, Insightful)
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High density dwellings are efficient from a land-use perspective, but it takes a mental health toll on the occupants. There was this experiment with rats [smithsonianmag.com] and it got very loosely adapted into an animated children's film, and uh... okay, I'm not really sure where I was going with that. Quite frankly, I just don't want to share walls with my fucking neighbors.
Long after fossil fuels are banned (or we run out, whichever comes first), the people who can afford to do so will still drive their big ass battery po
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The interpretation has changed, and it's even in the article:
Now, interpretations of Calhounâ(TM)s work has changed. Inglis-Arkell explains that the habitats he created werenâ(TM)t really overcrowded, but that isolation enabled aggressive mice to stake out territory and isolate the beautiful ones. She writes, "Instead of a population problem, one could argue that Universe 25 had a fair distribution problem."
So maybe isolation was the real problem (something that may be made worse by COVID and WFH)
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depending on the type of sprawl, it's not.
Re: It. Because you are an atom of consumption, n (Score:2)
Humans are part of the ecosystem, for better or worse. Any solution trying to treat them otherwise will backfire. Always.
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Well, for many companies...if the remote working is going well, and cities put t
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He's advocating for getting downtown running again.
He's the mayor. His goal should be to develop policies to make a downtown viable for the future not demand people return to past practices because "downtown".
Fuck everyone demanding that people sit in an office downtown, and no my comment has zero to do with COVID.
In other news even before COVID some sensible countries around the world offer tax breaks to companies who promote work from home and flexible working hours. But no this is America. Get it you car and honk angrily at the peakhour traffic in front
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Why would it be cheaper to continue paying a gadzillion in rent rather than making your employees happy for free?
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It sounds EXACTLY like the broken windows fallacy.
While he's at it, why not ban cars from the city? The buggy whip manufacturers have suffered long enough!
Re: awesome. (Score:2)
If only someone could invent a machine that cleans clothes at the user's home, using their existing household water and electricity sources.
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No it's not.
Yes it is. The pandemic is not over and will never be over if some people have their way. Covid will always be with us, just one more disease like the cold and the flu. But its time to stop quaking in our boots, take off the masks, and get back to living a normal life.
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I am ready to get "back" to a normal life, and I do feel sorry for all the downtown restaurants, etc. that are basically closed for two years. But right now my normal life is working from home 4 days a week, and one day with a wasteful, long commute to and from the downtown office. Saying I need to work downtown in order to support more expensive places to eat lunch is a broken window fallacy. What I save
Re: It. Because you are an atom of consumption, n (Score:5, Insightful)
The pandemic is not over and will never be over if some people have their way. Covid will always be with us, just one more disease like the cold and the flu.
The pandemic will be over at some point, as the virus becomes endemic. Covid will always be with us, just like every other disease and virus circulating the planet. But at some point the pandemic itself will be over and we will find a new normal.
From what I can tell there are two primary concerns which would need to be addressed before the pandemic is over.
1) Hospitalization rates need to drop to a sustainable level. The CDC has already said it is switching its focus to hospitalization rates instead of infection rates because the virus has become too infectious to deal with without extreme lock downs. And with vaccinations and mutations the virus is no longer deadly enough to warrant that response. As long as outbreaks aren't sending a hundred thousand people to the hospital every day, we won't need to take nearly as many measures to limit spread.
2) Worldwide vaccinations rates need to rise. We have the same optimism now that we had in Spring '21. But new variants are very likely, especially from the undeveloped world where vaccination rates are very low. We got lucky with Omicron that it didn't have mutations to make it more deadly, and we may not get lucky next time. While vaccination rates stay low there will continue to be a high risk of re-entering pandemic mode at any time.
its time to stop quaking in our boots, take off the masks, and get back to living a normal life.
It isn't fear, it is responsibility. And for most people it would be their natural state if not for political rhetoric which has led to this level of distrust in medical experts.
Re: It. Because you are an atom of consumption, n (Score:4)
It has been endemic and pretty much back to normal for me and everyone in the area for about a year now.
Your opinion of whether Covid has become endemic is not relevant. The virus doesn't care about your lack of moral compass either. There are plenty of immoral people who have led comfortable lives at the expense of others throughout history, and today is no different.
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Even if COVID disappears tomorrow never to return and takes the flu (all variants) with it, what is the point of going in to an office for white collar workers?
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Even more to the point, even if someone waves their magic wand and makes COVID disappear from the Earth forever, why go in to the office just to sit at a computer in a cube farm and do the same things you can do at home sitting in your favorite chair at a computer.
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This might be hard to get your head around.... (Score:2)
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I would counter with the point that regardless of why you want to work from home (COVID, Save on dry cleaning, food, etc.) If your job can be done from home and done well, then I'm all for the push to make it more normal to do so. It doesn't have to be about COVID. It leads to a far greater quality of life for those who want it.
Cry for the buggy-whip manufacturers! (Score:2)
"That accountant that's not in his office space is not going to the cleaners," he said. "It's not going to the restaurant. It's not allowing the cooks, the waiters, the dishwashers [to make a living]."
If only he'd been mayor back when the automobile was just getting started!
Change happens. When it happens, some people benefit and some people are affected deleteriously. But everyone has to adapt - it's just a fact of life.
Most of the work/life changes we've seen were already in motion prior to December 2019
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Why do we need an office at all if work is proceeding fine from home? Is it a concern that the workers aren't suffering enough?
What in the world is wrong with wanting to go out on the weekend but not deal with unnecessary bullshit during the work week? Where is the virtue in stuffing yourself into a suit that almost fits and needs specialized cleaning, then angrily pounding on the horn button for an hour before starting work? What is the point of worrying over a million in productivity while pissing away a
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No thanks. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Or there won't be a new one because some one who lives in an area with a drastically lower cost of living took it for half the price of what would have been affordable to you. An example of such an area that would be so much cheaper would be about half the planet.at least.
Not my job. (Score:2)
Uh.... no. (Score:2)
What is the carbon footprint? (Score:5, Informative)
Why does the mayor hate the environment? Remote work has a lower carbon footprint than going into the office. If anything, they should be tearing down office buildings to force people to work from home.
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Adams is just misunderstood (Score:3, Funny)
It all msut be a misunderstanding.
Since as Adams claims, the reporters need to be the correct color.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams says white journalists misrepresent him because he is black [slashdot.org]
For the corporate and government (Score:2)
Eric Adams new book (Score:2)
All about the (Property Tax) Benjamins. (Score:5, Insightful)
Right now, we know what the mayor of NYC is hurting for.
Property tax revenue.
Can't justify millions in corporate property taxes if you can't justify the overpriced, overtaxed building white collar workers have been forced to commute to for decades, as Greed made pathetic excuses about how remote work "doesn't" work.
Let obscene taxes fall back down to reasonable levels before we even glance in Greed's direction, much less pay attention to pathetic whining from mayors. And if the end result of raising taxes even higher is people leaving your city or state in droves, good. You earned it, and deserve it.
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Right now, we know what the mayor of NYC is hurting for.
Property tax revenue.
In his defence, most cities in America are hurting for property tax revenue. Poor town planning and zoning practices has basically ensured that property tax revenue has plummeted for a given city block. America razed multi-use dwellings to make way for single owner mega stores and parking lots. The push to the suburbs has dramatically increased infrastructure costs per person in many cases to the point of unsustainability.
B S Numbers from Mayor (Score:3, Insightful)
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Expect more of this (Score:3, Interesting)
Polling for Democrats is horrible and they're changing their tune in a very obvious way with regards to masks, mandates, etc.
Re:Expect more of this (Score:5, Insightful)
Democrats are changing their tunes because Omicron is fading and these things are becoming less necessary.
Not everything is politics.
Clean up your city first (Score:2, Insightful)
I have visited NYC multiple times, but never understood the appeal of living, much less working there.
The whole city has always been a trash heap, literal trash everywhere. From what I head that may have even gotten worse, though I can't imagine how.
The total crime rate is way up [nyc.gov] so if you do go in, getting mugged or raped or simply chucked coin front of a subway by some random crazo are all in the cards.
On top of of all that, have you ever tried to commute into NYC? I've had the pleasure of taking the tr
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The total crime rate is way up [nyc.gov]
You are comparing the height of the pandemic in 2020 to 2021, so it is an exceptional comparison bordering on dishonest.
From your link:
A look back on the past eight years shows New York City has experienced significant crime reductions. Overall index crime has decreased by 11% since 2013, when 101,755 index crimes were recorded, and by 46% since 2000, when there were 169,424 index crimes.
So long term, crime is down. Let's see what the figures for November 2022 before panicking.
Crime was way down, and then came Mayor Bill Diblasio, the worst NYC mayor of my lifetime. At least David Dinkins was able to die happy in the knowledge that he no longer held that title.
Is there a reason New York can't elect a mayor (Score:2)
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I have a similar question (which will probably get modded as off-topic because...it is. So be it.)
The US has a population of about 330 million, of which around 180 million are over the age of 35 (minimum age to be president of the US). Why can't either party find somebody in those 180 million people who would make a decent president? Neither candidate in the last two presidential elections has been anybody I wanted to vote for. Surely there are better qualified people than Trump, H. Clinton, or Biden.
Ma
Local Business Climate Change (Score:2)
Good to know where the democrats' priorities lie. Color me shocked...shocked I tell you!.. that money is more important than a global environmental crisis.
He can try (Score:2)
He can try to tell people to come in to work but many folks have already started to plan their exit strategy. More and more each day I'm seeing folks offering up free office furniture and systems furniture for cubicles on craigslist. Folks are starting to close up offices or at least reducing their footprint because everyone is trying to cut costs due to the increase in costs of doing business.
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Go back to New Jersey Mr. Mayor. (Score:2)
That's where you live after all. Maybe this bullshit will fly over there in Jersey, but I doubt it.
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Good times (Score:5, Interesting)
I've worked as an independent contractor since some time before the pandemic. The best move i've ever made. I do the same job, but for multiple clients and on my own. The office work before almost killed me (I started to descend into anxiety/depression). It wasn't the work or the people. It was the loss of control in the sense that I needed to be there from 9 to 5, and I was locked/forced into certain mode during those hours. Now I can freely flow between work and other stuff and it's perfect. My productivity is higher, when I'm in control of my time. I can do the day's work in less time than before and still get paid more. I haven't had an alarm clock to wake me up for 3.5 years, and I still wake up early and fresh. Actually earlier, because before even the idea that I need to be in the office at certain hour stressed me and disturbed my sleep.
I know this is not for all, but I sincerely hope that businesses understand what potential they're perhaps missing, if things are forced back to 'normal' for all. A deadline/target oriented way of work could be a solution. How anyone uses the time between start and finish could be up to them. This is not a new idea, but was a revelation for me.
Anyway, your mental health is more important than moving money.
The cat is out of the bag (Score:5, Insightful)
Employers are offering packages the include plenty of Remote Opportunities. If they are successful at this, real estate is next-in-line to take the hit.
The city knows this. Restaurants are fine - they'll serve the people near them. In their perspective, this is a geo-density-shift now, not an absolute drop.
This mayor would be wise to begin incentivizing offices to repurpose into residential, artist, communal space. Offices are disappearing, homes are dispersing. After destroying physical information (books, maps, newspapers, photography) - the digital revolution is now consuming location itself.
Wait until this Mayor, and others, discover that companies, currency, products, employees and information ALREADY do not need to heed any sort of uniform space/location, nationality, tax base, schedule, etc.
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"This mayor would be wise to begin incentivizing offices to repurpose into residential..."
Given there is a shortage of affordable housing that should the priority. Change the zoning laws if need be.
I was going to post my thoughts on this here but.. (Score:2)
other people have already done it for me.
Screw you, Mr Mayor. If those businesses are no longer needed, they should die out, and workers should move on to more desired vocations. You could be doing them a favour, giving them a nudge to change something for the better in their lives, you know?
yeah taxes (Score:2)
He is worried that in the future New York will not get enough taxes due to all the people working remotely.
The was-ought fallacy (Score:2)
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That happens to be one of the arguments for preventing climate change: the climate of 1900 or so was ideal. I realize it's not the only argument, but it's surely the worst argument. And I get that sea level rise is a concern, but if that's a concern, why not say that the climate of 5000 BC was ideal--when Doggerland was above water?
Hurting office owners are desperate (Score:5, Interesting)
And the people who've they got influence over will continue to spout the 'return to the office' demand for the next few years. Meanwhile companies will divide into those infested by extroverts who need to be in the office for their sanity, and us introverts for whom working from home is the most productivity enhancing thing since the PC.
Will there be a fine for brown bag crowd? (Score:2)
Fucking asshole.
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Or those that use a washing machine.
Burn fuel. Wear out cars. Maintain more buildings. (Score:2)
Return in stages (Score:2)
For three months, it shall be acceptable to work in the office wearing a ratty bathrobe, boxer shorts, a stained tee shirt, slippers and bed hair.
If I lived in New York City, I'd move immediately. (Score:2)
I don't need to be yelled at by public servants.
Come to think of it, has NYC ever had *any* mayor with even a modicum of respect for his citizens?
Coroprate greed is part of the problem (Score:2)
Yes businesses are seeing a lack of customers and that's hurting.
But it doesn't help that the normal rules of supply and demand don't seem to apply to NYC commercial real estate and that despite the fact that supply vastly exceeds demand (as evidenced by the many many empty retail premises in NYC right now) the greed of landlords, banks and others means prices aren't comming down.
Eric Adams can kiss my ass in Macy's window (Score:3)
I will not be commuting to the city just so I can spend the day on zoom calls from my office desk, followed by another long commute home. My neighborhood is now full of ex-commuters who have no intention of returning to that life. The train parking lot which used to be jam-packed is now mostly empty.
Our economy is based on sandwiches (Score:2)
What is the glazier to do? (Score:2)
The glazier is sitting by his very quiet phone lately. Come on you lazy vandals, it's time to get off your butts and start throwing some rocks again! The economy needs you!
Not just the NYC mayor, but also the NY governor (Score:2)
Gov. Hochul has also been spreading the same message [ny1.com].
NY and NJ were the top two states for outbound migration during the pandemic. If workers don't have to be at a specific physical location, chain of the office is broken, and the worker can then find living situation to be in a place they like to live. The politicians are trying to stem the flow by getting that chain hooked back up.
Just increase tolls (Score:2)
Empty Buildings (Score:2)
with all due respect (Score:5, Informative)
Fuck you, Eric Adams, and all your multimillionaire friends. I don't ever want to return to an office again, or to 2+ hours commuting every day, or to a suit and tie and expensive dry cleaning bills and ridiculously expensive fast food meals when I'm stuck downtown. Demanding that white collar workers return to cubicles after we've proven we can get the job done from the comfort of our own apartments is fucking bullshit.
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This was a great opportunity for you to cite other politicians putting forth the same idiocy... But you didn't...
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maybe he misunderstood the broken window fallacy?
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excuse me? its not my job to prop up other businesses, if they cant adapt, fuckem.
When you are asking for a raise, it is always a horrible idea to bring up how much you personally need the raise. You need to show how it benefits the company.
This mayor is making the same mistake here. Any argument to get workers back needs to be based on how it helps the workers.
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And there's his problem. There isn't much of an argument there for many.
Re: fuck you eric adams (Score:4, Insightful)
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It is your job to go to work, literally. If you are at a night club, you should also be in the office.
It's my job to go to work if I want to. I may decide I don't want to work in a city office anymore so I can either work from home or get another job. I don't have to go work in an office just because the mayor wants me to. And even when I do I don't have to spend my money in local businesses just so the city can get more tax dollars.
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It is my job to go to work. Why can't that be a computer in my home? (NOTE: it is)
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isn't this the same twat who decided that kids should go vegan one day a week at school?
I'm not sure what it was about covid, but it seems like it's really let the petite tyrants across the country come out of the woodwork.
Re: Go back to work slacker. (Score:2)
Ok boomer. Why havenâ(TM)t you kicked off yet, by the way? You no longer add much value to society; rather, your numbers are a drain on resources.