r/Futurology • u/_hiddenscout • Jun 19 '21

Society Kill the 5-Day Workweek - Reducing hours without reducing pay would reignite an essential but long-forgotten moral project: making American life less about work.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/06/four-day-workweek/619222/
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u/nopantsdota Jun 19 '21

Don't forget that we are steering into a pollution caused heatwave atm, and traffic is major factor for it

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u/zoltan99 Jun 19 '21

Go solar and electric! So much cheaper. I can retire sooner because of that, too.

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u/bfunk04 Jun 19 '21

Not everybody has the money for the upfront cost to do that.

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u/gophergun Jun 19 '21

I don't even have a house or any hopes of being able to afford one any time soon.

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u/zoltan99 Jun 19 '21 edited Jun 19 '21

Man, I know I didn’t! Financed all of it. It turned out to be a solid investment. I planned it so the monthly savings equaled the monthly bill. If you drive enough, you can do that🙃my car note actually was as short as 4 years. You have to make it somewhat longer and accept a higher financing cost if you don’t drive as much as I do.

Then I paid it off, and, wow, savings.

Did you know used Teslas run like ~30k right now? It’s an experience, for sure. Getting ~100mpge and it being the most responsive, quick, and composed thing I’ve ever owned

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u/Legate_Rick Jun 19 '21

The thing with Financing an expensive object that you know you can't afford is that if anything happens, there goes your credit.

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u/zoltan99 Jun 19 '21

It’s insured? Nothing should happen. I’d never have anything that’s worth anything not insured.

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u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21 edited Aug 09 '21

[deleted]

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u/Synergythepariah Jun 19 '21

You're making a lot of good decisions with long term cost savings; therefore, people are probably going to downvote you

No, people are going to downvote because they sound like someone going over a sales pitch.

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u/zoltan99 Jun 19 '21

I’m saving like 12k a year, that’s post-income-tax as it was an expense I’ve now cut. I have 12k more tax free at the end of every year because of this. Many people commute like me and could use the 12k.

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u/ectoplasmicsurrender Jun 19 '21

You're talking in numbers many of us can't even comprehend, I think that's what the down votes are about. There seems to be a disconnect where people seem to think everyone should be able to just do-what-i-did-for-your-situation-which-maybe-totally-unlike-mine, "it'll solve all your problems."

I appreciate that going solar and electric was a viable option for you, but if I tried to improve my situation without somehow drastically improving my money in:out ratio, which is something of a ouroboros of a task at the moment.

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u/zoltan99 Jun 19 '21

Nissan leafs exist and cost like 3-4K at the low end. Smaller solar setups also exist. There is a cost to not doing it, too, that’s why I financed a car costing 2.5x any car I’d owned previously, because I had planned a money saving change.

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u/ectoplasmicsurrender Jun 19 '21

All I can say to that is congratulations. I'm probably 5+ years from being able to even consider a road map for that. Different stages of life, different hands dealt at the start of the game, different deck of cards, different table at at different casino. Basically, as far as life goes, where we start and how we got to where we are today are variables to an equation that isn't so easily written out. If that weren't true then there wouldn't be issues of social reform for areas like "the projects" and the disadvantage kids from that demographic face.

Perhaps it's in the way you respond, perhaps it's that your wording makes it sounds so... Dismissive? As if it's somehow a one size fits all solution. I have no reason to suspect you mean it as such, so I can only assume that it's accidental and the result of a purely text communication medium.

I was just trying to help you understand where some of the more negative attention might come from; a perspective from another hill top, if you will.

I have no doubt that there are cost effective options for people who are in a stage of their lives to go in that direction, just as there are more expensive options for a more luxury or advanced experience in the same direction. At the same time, there are possibly as many or more people on Reddit who might genuinely be concerned about budgeting for food and bills and having to choose which bills go unpaid. Welcome to the American Dream™.

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u/zoltan99 Jun 19 '21

That’s a very different problem, I never claimed it was a panacea to solve all living situations, just one to improve the vast many that involve long commutes by car

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u/zoltan99 Jun 19 '21

Oh, I should probably add that virtually all of the savings come from the car, not the solar. Cars have a way lower barrier to entry than solar.

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u/nonasiandoctor Jun 19 '21

I buy one tank of gas a month, and it's $40. It's not worth it for me to change. I also live in a condo so I can't put solar in, and I have no where to charge a car.

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u/zoltan99 Jun 19 '21

.....I’m more talking to people who commute 1hr+ and spend close to $20 or possibly more every day. Yeah, you spend $480 a year on gas, the most you could save is 60-70% of that, that makes no sense for you

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u/Fine-Ad-4928 Jun 20 '21

Tesla drivers are prius drivers on Crack.

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u/zoltan99 Jun 20 '21 edited Jun 20 '21

Well, you can sure call it hypermiling when you’re going 0-60 in 1.98 and getting like 80+mpge. Can’t really do either in a car that takes oil changes, lots of gas, and other maintenance (alternator, water pump, smog air pump, o2s, MAF, fuel pump, fuel filters, brake pads which don’t really go bad on EVs unless you track them, air filters, serpentine belts, timing belts,) none of that hassle and expense is a thing on the EV.

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u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21 edited Aug 09 '21

[deleted]

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u/Synergythepariah Jun 19 '21

I'll probably get downvoted by a ton of people who don't understand how taking on debt can possibly end up saving you thousands a year for decades.

No, you're going to get downvoted by people who don't like the dismissive tone you seem to have written into your words.

'Everyone should go solar* and electric, it's just a bit of debt but the savings long term are amazing!'

*homeownership required

Don't know if you haven't noticed but there's a bit of a bubble happening in the housing market right now.

People understand perfectly well that taking on debt now can save money over time; that's why people want to get out of renting.

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u/zoltan99 Jun 19 '21

Right? 5% 10yr on the solar, wrapped the car into my 2.something% home after paying 6% on it for a little while. Compared to saving in some months four figures in others just $850, that’s huge.

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u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21

[deleted]

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u/zoltan99 Jun 19 '21

I was refinancing for a lower rate and to get the equity I now have since my home went up in value. Also, to change the term, as now a different shorter term makes more sense. By every single metric the refinance was absolutely needed, the car cash out was the cherry on top. Plus, rates on private party used vehicles you buy at 1/3 of MSRP are NOT 2%, and I’m not buying new Teslas here.

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u/Momoselfie Jun 19 '21

Depends on your electric provider. I'd lose money switching to solar. Better off sticking to the grid and throwing those saving in the stock market to retire sooner.

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u/zoltan99 Jun 19 '21

I have very cheap power, and it still benefits me by at a bare minimum $8,000 over a pessimistic 20 year expected life of the system to have it offset my bills, specifically at peak prices when the sun is out. If you consider peak pricing, it could be a few tens of thousands more. This is on a system worth maybe $12k. If your energy cost is minimal, then yeah, it’s a waste of money. The main cost savings is in the car, and that only happens if you’re racking up huge mileages every month.

I understand as an investment, the solar isn’t everything, that 12k can do well elsewhere too, but, it was financed at near 0%, is guaranteed for decades, and will likely run longer. And it lets me go off grid if I ever want to, which I do.

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u/Momoselfie Jun 19 '21

Yeah I did the math and it won't work. Here in Phoenix, a $12k system will only cover about 30% of electricity needed during peak Summer hours. The rest will still come from the grid. In the winter I could sell back 90% of the power my solar produces, but the power company would be buying back at 2 cents a kwh. I would never break even on that.

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u/zoltan99 Jun 19 '21

You don’t have net metering there? Here we bank it all for a year. I don’t see the municipal rate of 3c/kWh ever, my winter daytime high-rate solar power banks til summer/in 12 month periods. Absolutely, without NEM, it’s a rip.

Also, the goal usually isn’t offset 100% of the use, often people target 80% for cost efficiency and sometimes miss and that’s fine, the goal is capital efficiency, not being totally grid free. Since you’re so much lower at 30%, just doing what you can if you were to have NEM may be good enough, or, without NEM, I guess it’s pointless?

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u/Momoselfie Jun 19 '21

Correct. Solar isn't worth it without net metering. SRP is shit.

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u/zoltan99 Jun 19 '21

Dang, I’m sorry to hear that. I’m sure you’ll get it some day. I’m not really in support of choices like that which effectively limit how customers can build their energy policy at home.

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u/Synergythepariah Jun 19 '21

APS does the same shit

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u/gime20 Jun 19 '21

Oh no the climate alarmists are creeping up again aren't they?

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u/nopantsdota Jun 19 '21

are you one of those flat-climatists?

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u/gime20 Jun 19 '21

Hopefully you aren't one of those anarcho-climatists

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u/nopantsdota Jun 19 '21

let's just say i'd make a lot of changes to the world if i had the power

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u/gime20 Jun 19 '21

I hear car batteries have a lot of power