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Re:What's Behind the Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation? by darth_avocado on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @03:03PM (#49173355)
Im in the prime working age and if I didn’t have responsibilities (mortgage, health insurance, dependents etc.), I’d quit today and not participate for at least a couple of years. Corporate treatment of workers has deteriorated at an unprecedented rate since Covid and based on my anecdotal evidence we probably have a national level burnout and depression epidemic that no one is talking about or looking into. Most people I talk to in my age group are experiencing the same feelings.
Re:What's Behind the Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation? by lifestyleguru on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @03:40PM (#49173901)
Looks like trickling up of the covid money is definitely complete now.
Re:What's Behind the Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation? by reinitctxoffset on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @04:03PM (#49174274)
Once again, Gary Stevenson is right about everything.

In fairness Pikkety knew it first: r >> g.

Tax wealth not work.

Stop redistribution.

Let workers, savers, innovators, entrepreneurs, families keep their money, use it to buy real assets, and keep money velocity up.

Down with the Central Committee.

https://imgur.com/a/tQyfNdJ

Re:What's Behind the Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation? by reinitctxoffset on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @04:05PM (#49174299)
@dang this gets brigaded? It goes in the lawsuit.
Re:What's Behind the Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation? by reinitctxoffset on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @04:13PM (#49174403)
Organic downvotes at human speed are fine.

GP getting flagged at machine speed?

Nah dawg. That's a hard no.

Edit: oh gee willicker. I completely forgot to mention I chart all of this. I don't even need an HMM. XGboost prints the fucking switch statement.

Re:What's Behind the Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation? by devindotcom on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @04:33PM (#49174677)
no one understands what you are saying
Re:What's Behind the Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation? by inigyou on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @06:32PM (#49176162)
You got banned, that means all of your comments are now flagged automatically.
Re:What's Behind the Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation? by roarcher on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @04:25PM (#49174564)
I'm gonna venture a guess that it's getting downvoted because it makes no sense unless the reader happens to be familiar with your obscure references, and the linked image makes even less sense. That, and whatever you're trying to say sounds like it contains far more ideology than thought.
Re:What's Behind the Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation? by reinitctxoffset on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @04:37PM (#49174742)
I don't care what happens to parent.

If they fuck with GP it's discovery.

Re:What's Behind the Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation? by roarcher on Wednesday August 05, 2026 @12:38AM (#49178622)
Lol okay buddy, good luck with that.
Re:What's Behind the Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation? by tomhow on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @05:40PM (#49175567)
We've banned this account for using HN for ideological battle and posting incoherent but apparently threatening comments. Please don't poison HN like this. Thoughtful debate is always fine here.
Re:What's Behind the Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation? by zaptheimpaler on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @04:26PM (#49174568)
One of my colleagues said that working in software is like being a pro athlete nowadays and that struck me as true. The expectations just keep going higher and higher and higher across the board. But we sure aren't given the training, coaching, recovery, salary or recognition of pro athletes.

COVID and AI are great examples of what's wrong today. We created an incredible global communication network that lets us all collaborate across the world, used it to work through a pandemic, found a better work-life balance and saved hours of commuting and pollution daily. Now everyone is being forced back to the office. Like we all lived through this period right, we remember how much more pleasant it was to be able to work remotely, and its now been snatched away for no good reason? We made technology that can save us 2 hours of commute a day and then throw it away because office buildings go empty?

AI made many of us 2x more productive (conservatively), but where is the increased salary or bonus or reduced working hours for this productivity? All the gains are outcompeted or flow to companies balance sheets. We created this incredible technology and are rewarded with crushing expectations and FASTER FASTER FASTER as usual. Like we've made this miraculous technology that can do so much work for us, but it has made our work harder not easier? Why?

Most potential workers would have to be insane to be invested in a system like this. All the gains flow to the top, everyone else gets crushed. I feel like a hamster in a wheel that keeps spinning faster and faster. All the technology and productivity should be making our lives better, should be making us happier, but everyone is poorer and more depressed now. It's clear that corporate power, inequality, politics is the reason that's happening.

Re:What's Behind the Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation? by inigyou on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @06:31PM (#49176143)
> 2x more productive (conservatively)

studies keep showing numbers closer to -0.2x more productive. But your point stands, since those in charge of assigning our salaries think it's more than 2x.

Re:What's Behind the Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation? by sleepybrett on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @05:11PM (#49175219)
Yeah I always laugh when some corporate stooge is on cnn talking about how such and such new technology is going to allow us to produce so much more and maybe that means we don't need to work as much... it's been the same thing since the industrial revolution. Increases in individual productivity only flow to the employer. The employee sees 0 upside. They still work the same hours, their salary remains the same but the company is extracting some multiplier of the profit from your labor.

.. people wonder why the DSA is making so much noise and wonder why the 'mainstream' democrat party is not.

Re:What's Behind the Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation? by FromHoiPolloi on Wednesday August 05, 2026 @04:00AM (#49179867)
That's not 100% true. At the beginning of industrial revolution workers have been working insane hours - often 12-16 hour shifts 6 days a week.

See the 1833 [1] bill that limits work-shift for children aged 9-13 to 8 hours a day. The fact that (most) developed countries settled for 40 hour work week was a huge progress. The fact that we did not shortened the workweek in the last 100 years is sad to say the least. The gains in productivity were shared with the employees right up until 1971 [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_Acts#Ashley's_Bill_(18... [2] https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/

Re:What's Behind the Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation? by sleepybrett on Saturday August 08, 2026 @09:06AM (#49221514)
Re:What's Behind the Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation? by scarecrowbob on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @11:27PM (#49178262)
Yeah, as soon as my kiddo finished college I literally moved into my pickup truck and started playing music and doing stage hand stuff.

I'd literally rather live in the back of a pickup than have to keep getting woken up at 1am to reboot a server in Iowa because that's cheaper for my boss than getting a second instance.

At some point I inherited some money and bought a shack in the desert, and now I am studying to be an EMT and I volunteer at a free clinic... today got to help a doc sew up a hobo who got into a fight, which was beyond interesting for sure. I get enough money from some investments, an audio production business, and doing festival stuff (either first aid or audio).

Fuck the US, and fuck its working culture. It's sick. When I had to play along with it cause I had kids to raise and needed some stability, I put on a happy face and did the thing.

But there is no reason to do that if you don't have too.

For context, I am 48.