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A comment on German Union Steps Up Fight for ‘Modern’ 28-Hour Workweek. Parent comment

Re:German Union Steps Up Fight for ‘Modern’ 28-Hour Workweek by dgdas9 on Monday January 22, 2018 @03:19PM (#16207539)
We've been over this several times now. Oxfam uses very disingenuous criteria, and their numbers are not to be trusted. They consider debt to be negative wealth, which means that a middle class family with no net savings and a mortgage on their house is "poorer" than a starving child with 2 cents on their pocket.
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Re:German Union Steps Up Fight for ‘Modern’ 28-Hour Workweek by RHSeeger on Monday January 22, 2018 @03:58PM (#16207843)
How does that work? Wouldn't the house be considered an asset then and, assuming it's not underwater, put the family back in the black?
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Re:German Union Steps Up Fight for ‘Modern’ 28-Hour Workweek by Erikun on Monday January 22, 2018 @04:49PM (#16208251)
That specific example is a bad one as you say. A better is perhaps student loans. I recommend checking out BBCs More or less, they has covered the issues with Oxfams claims several times.
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Re:German Union Steps Up Fight for ‘Modern’ 28-Hour Workweek by TheCoelacanth on Tuesday January 23, 2018 @11:22AM (#16214720)
Even in the case of student loans, that's still not an incorrect way to count net worth. The only problem with it is that we don't have a good way to measure the value of human capital.
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Re:German Union Steps Up Fight for ‘Modern’ 28-Hour Workweek by pnutjam on Monday January 22, 2018 @04:18PM (#16207996)
Shh... Your ruining his narrative.
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Re:German Union Steps Up Fight for ‘Modern’ 28-Hour Workweek by metiscus on Monday January 22, 2018 @04:30PM (#16208091)
I believe the point stands. If a penniless, homeless child has a worth of 0, and I have a house valued at 80,000 with a 90,000 mortgage, am I really worse off than the child without a home? Assuming I have a job and can make payments.
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Re:German Union Steps Up Fight for ‘Modern’ 28-Hour Workweek by pishpash on Monday January 22, 2018 @05:57PM (#16208910)
If you assume you can make payments, then you are equivalently assuming your job has present asset value (or that you have human capital). So yes, a full accounting will show you are not actually underwater.

If you are delusional and have no job security, then yes, you're worse off than the child.

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