So some things that we know is
- There is gov studies showing people are 20% more productive, and there is far less people wanting to quit. Note depending on the industry the numbers can change, but across the board workers are more productive and there is less people quitting.
- It cost the company far less money due to not needing a building, insurance, etc.
- There is health benefits and more of an ability to spend time with family/friends since you gain back 2-4 hours due to no traveling to work.
- And so on
But something that most don't know is early studies are showing 86% of car use on the road is to travel to/from work. Thanks due to people going to work at different times, this doesn't mean 86% of traffic is down per a given time period. But it does mean throughout the day 86% of the traffic is off the road. Depending on the area, there is around a 45%-70% reduction in traffic on peak times. But the more interesting point is trucks that move goods are able to get to their location faster, there is less risk, and this drives down the cost on shipping goods to stores or homes. IDK what the % of less accidents there is, but it's obvious there is a less chance of that due to less people on the road.
Now what this also means is magically overnight the demand for gas drops through the floor. Since the average person will use their car 86% of the time traveling to/from work. This is a 86% reduction in their gas consumption. And even if the study is wrong and it is closer to 50%. Still that is a massive reduction in needed gas by the person. Times that by the number of remote workers, and this can massively drive down gas prices. This driving down product prices like food and services, and it is giving more money to lower wage groups that can't work remote due to their job.
So basically, when your boss is saying you need to come back to work. They are screwing with all of us, and when Biden or whomever 1 sec says he wants gas prices to go down but the other second is anti-remote. It is double talk.
Edit: I forgot to mention it saves the government a lot of money. Due to the less cars on the road the road required less maintenance, and accidents are less frequent. A major cost go into police and others going out to clean up a wreck or deal with a wreck. So it's a win for almost everyone involved.
The only one that losses anything is the property manager since it is harder to get companies to use buildings, and it dings places like NY which heavily tax and people are leaving those areas.