In a recent interview, Elon Musk argued for working from home on moral grounds.
Here is the quote:
"There are some exceptions, but I kinda think the whole notion of work-from-home is a bit like the fake Marie Antoinette quote, 'Let them eat cake,'" he said. "You're going to make people who make your food that gets delivered [that] can't work from home; the people that come fix your house, they cant work from home, but you can?"
"Does that seem morally right? That's messed up," Musk said.
Elon Musk thinks morality requires you to work from an office. This is, of course, not true: No one would tell a first class author or columnist that he has to work from the office for reasons of “morality.” Elon Musk himself works from his jet. People have always understood that different kinds of work offer different working conditions. Some require travel, others don’t. Some require driving a vehicle all day. If something about the character of the job makes it harder, this should generally lead to higher pay as people take other kinds of work whenever possible, requiring compensation to “increase interest.” This is why trash men make a better living than other kinds of unskilled labor.
Elon Musk basically built his fortune by taking advantage of climate hysteria. Now he opposes work from home on moral grounds, claiming it isn't fair that lower class workers have to commute to their jobs. If he actually believed the climate stuff, his concern for carbon emissions would outweigh this pitiable and rather pathetic, esp. for a billionaire, concern with equity. Even people who have to commute for their jobs benefit from not cluttering up the freeways. Fewer cars on the road means less greenhouse gas and a faster, easier commute for those who must go into work. Are we to believe that this fact has escaped Elon’s mind after he spent a decade profiting off climate subsidies?
Let’s take Musk’s arguments and, instead of applying it to people, apply it to businesses: When people work from home, they reduce their companies’ need for office space. Now, would Musk take his argument and claim that it is unfair that certain companies benefit from this reduced overhead while others do not? Of course, he wouldn’t. Benefitting corporations is one thing: That is just good management, but benefiting actual people is quite another. Plebs, both well paid and poorly paid, must all feel the whip unless they belong to Musk’s august social class. I mean, people face different commutes—by his logic that too is unfair. He would never claim that a company that decides to do work from home to cut costs was acting in an immoral way, but his equity concerns—both with respect to workers and to other companies—apply regardless.
Some people are able to work seated; others have to stand. Some have to travel and others get to see their children every night. Musk’s argument, if applied to any other difference between two jobs, would seem absurd to almost anyone who gave it a moment’s thought.
If you believe people are more productive in an office environment, make that your argument. Don't make up nonsense about fairness and equity while you are working from your private jet. That strain of logic ends up with a bunch of communists taking your stuff and locking you away in a cell. Arguments about equity don’t play well coming from a billionaire.