NEW YORK, NY June 7 (DPI) – Steven Rattner, a one-time NYT business reporter who jumped to Wall Street in the 80s, made a nice sum and later helped Obama bail out General Motors in 2008, declared in a March opinion column that the work-from-home revolution is undermining the American work ethic. And readers posted more than 2800 comments, many of them excoriating the “oligarch Rattner” for the mere suggestion that workers have “gone soft.”

The most popular comments dismissed Rattner’s views, and some, rather than challenge the idea that American worker productivity is declining, replied that they didn’t care if it was.

Three of the most popular replies to Rattner’s March 22 column:

Coming from investment bankers and asset managers like Steven Rattner, who tends Michael Bloomberg’s billions, complaints about Americans’ work ethic sound especially cheap and condescending. Telling us that we need to work harder while U.S. inequality reaches Gilded Age levels and we see American society falling apart all around us – public services, schools, infrastructure, democracy all in rapid decline – is a truly breathtaking display of “let them eat cake” arrogance. Sure, we’ve witnessed huge increases in worker productivity in recent years, but our wages and salaries have stayed flat. Meanwhile, the average S&P 500 CEO made 300 times the pay of the median worker. I would argue that instead of quiet quitting we need a general strike and a massive redistribution of wealth.

Sounds to me like an old guy resistant to change. And this person is revealing that they don’t understand working from home. Less meetings? Who, of those who worked from home during the pandemic, experienced LESS meetings? I worked from home the whole pandemic and still do, and on the contrary I and many others keep a regular schedule, we’re plenty productive, and we chat one another throughout the day with quick questions. I’m also able to be where I like, and take breaks to do things I enjoy which makes me MORE productive when I return. Maybe they’re also forgetting all the unproductive hours we spent ‘at the water cooler’, or watching YouTube videos with our office friends… Sure, true relationship building and comraderie are harder to build, but a few intentional in person days from adept leaders can overcome that. Like I said, sounds to me like an old guy resistant to change. Step aside!

Here’s the thing: wherever the truth lies in this debate, people are not going to be swayed by the words of millionaire elites like Steve Rattner who benefit directly from the sweat equity of rank and file workers. The rat race is less daunting when you have a full staff at home taking care of every errand and chore. But most of us don’t have that, and yes, I prefer to get the laundry done while working from home so I can spend my nights and weekends – wait for it – relaxing. Yes, I prefer the extra hour of sleep over the morning commute, because it means I can spend an extra hour with my wife the night before. Yes, I prefer being able to duck out at 4:30 for my son’s basketball games since I’m not stuck in an office 45 minutes from home with my managers watching my every move. It makes me a better worker, a better husband and a better father, and nothing that the people who profit from my labor say is going to change that.

Rather than back down from his angry mob of readers, Rattner, in his next guest column nine weeks later, on May 31, praised China for its productivity: After a recent trip to China, he found a country that’s still a beehive of productivity, where workers put in “their typically long days.” He wrote:

On many levels, China is back. Offices were filled with workers putting in their typically long days. Executives mostly radiated optimism about their businesses. A robust pipeline of exciting start-ups suggested China will continue to be a leader in innovation. And the energy and drive that excited me on my many past visits were abundant.

…Despite its ham-handed Covid response — particularly the extensive lockdowns — China’s economic performance has been far superior to our own. From the beginning of 2020 until the end of last year, China’s economy grew a cumulative 14 percent after adjusting for inflation, while ours has expanded by less than 6 percent.
Growth is projected to reach 5.2 percent this year, compared with 1.6 percent for us. 

NYT readers, once again, pushed back in 783 comments:

It looks like this opinion was written by someone working for the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. Everything is great, with no mention of the billions of dollars of overbuilt (and still empty) real estate that still appear to be ghost towns for the Chinese economy. Don’t tell me about the growth projections, show me the actual growth!

Western companies built an economic monster named China. We handed over to China two centuries of technological progress for free in the name of cheap labor. There is a trade deficit for the last two decades and in the process, we transferred wealth to China. There are also many “implants” that steal technology. I read it almost every month and get annoyed. We need a better policy to face the issue, which is important for our economic and geopolitical future.

The author fails to discuss the consequences of four decades of a one child policy and the massive migration from farms to factories during that 40-year period. China might be the first country in world history to demographically self-destruct. The 4-2-1 problem means one working person has to support two parents and four grandparents. That one working person has a one in four chance of being unemployed. Many are underemployed, delivering restaurant food, scraping by barely. These are well-educated college grads. State pension funds are insolvent or are tanking. The old Red Guards are desperate for adequate pensions and medical care in their retirement. The government is cutting, no slashing, those benefits. Angry demonstrations of retired people in Dalian and Wuhan have been in the tens of thousands. But the old and desperate rural elderly do not have the mass to demonstrate and protest. They are committing suicide (any hanging or poisoning) five time more frequently than in prior years. What does the bankruptcy and insolvency of cities and provinces tell us about China’s financial viability in the coming years? It will not be able to escape the middle-income trap. Companies have fled to Vietnam, India and Mexico where the costs are low, the quality workforce is competitive and where government caprice and excess are less likely. The most formidable foe threatening China is its own terrible governance, not America.