[ThePhysicist]

Wow, so because I save myself and my employer money by not mindlessly commuting to work everyday I should pay an extra tax? That's one of the most ridiculous ideas I've heard so far.

It's a bit like taxing cyclists 10 % of their income because they don't support the car industry...

[amf12]

> It's a bit like taxing cyclists 10 % of their income because they don't support the car industry...

Good analogy. But their argument is even worse because they don't look at the other benefits of remote work on the economy.

[candiodari]

It is also an extremely weird organisation to suggest this sort of thing. They're definitely not an organisation looking for fairness in the world, I've only ever heard of central banks implement policies for the general benefit or taxation, and then only with great reluctance, usually after their hand got forced.

On the other hand they have a huge real estate portfolio (and mortgage portfolio) that I'm sure is now no longer looking like such a smart investment. So they're looking for them and their customers to be the recipients of these grants, no doubt.

[perl4ever]

Deutche Bank is not a "central bank".

[varispeed]

It is scary that so many so called economists are strangers to the concept of opportunity cost...

[danpalmer]

It's much more likely that this comes from a PR team aiming to achieve commercial goals of Deutsche Bank.

[varispeed]

So true.

[daniellarusso]

Beyond a degree, what qualifications are needed to be an economist?

[VWWHFSfQ]

I think the point they're trying to make is that the money you and your employer are saving is not going into the economy as it was before, which is having a net-negative effect overall.

> Quite simply, our economic system is not set up to cope with people who can disconnect themselves from face-to-face society.

So it's plausible that there is actually a problem here with the very sudden change of workforce distribution and how it affects society and the economy. But addressing it by simply taxing employers more for work-from-home jobs is definitely short-slighted. But in the short term it seems that something needs to be done to prop up the system because billions of dollars have left the economy overnight and it will likely never return.

[danesparza]

So perhaps the system was broken (and punative measures against remote workers aren't going to fix it).

God forbid we question our banking system or other broken systems that have been brought into the light of day since COVID started.

[nonford150]

Exactly! We've built an unsustainable system around consumption by the smaller lot of creators. COVID only exposed it.

[JoeAltmaier]

Every business works constantly to reduce cost. How is this cost-saving any different from any other? Should a business that finds a cheaper vendor pay extra tax? And why does the money earned by remote workers, not somehow 'going into the economy'? That's a stretch.