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The entire back-to-normal narrative was and still is a total mindfuck:

https://www.thegauntlet.news/p/how-the-press-manufactured-co...

The threat from COVID (and more importantly, long COVID) never went away, but they sure convinced the average person that it did.

Today you can see an N95 in the wild once in awhile, so some people are paying attention, but they are less than 1%. Many others are suffering brain damage, unexplained heart issues, taxed immune systems, etc and have no idea why (nor does their doctor).

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Eesh, those are some sobering numbers.
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And now that the world's had a look at long COVID - it seems like COVID isn't the only virus that causes it, and a big part of aging is caused by the cumulative damage from viral infections.
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It's 2026, the conspiracy theory that business people wanted RTO for office space value has been debunked 100 times. Such a silly, nonsense idea.
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That'd be a lot easier to believe if you provided a source, which you should do if you care enough to comment in the first place, I think?

A cursory google suggests that the return-to-office movement is primarily driven by management's desire for voluntary turnover, avoiding the bad press of mass layoffs. But certainly doesn't show that it's 'been debunked 100 times'.

In my own experience, it's been 50/50 a desire for voluntary turnover, and also a control tactic. Employees are easier to strong-arm when they're immersed in the idea that company culture actually matters.

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You think that the size of investment firms that own something like, a good sized chunk of midtown Manhattan class A and B commercial real estate aren't capable of deploying social and tradtional-media influence tools to push an agenda to repopulate their office space? That would be a very inaccurate assessment of how large and motivated they are.
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If you are willing to believe a nonsense conspiracy like that then there is no way we could have a productive conversation.
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You actually don't think that the world's largest REITs hire lobbyists at the municipal, state and federal levels? That's an extremely naive and uninformed position.
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Didn't mean to imply that was the only reason, so I've added another reason to my comment.

I haven't come across much of the debunking of the commercial property issue. I would say it's undeniably factor, but we can argue about the scale.

A total of $800 billion—in real terms—of value is at stake by 2030, and, on average, the total value of office space is expected to decline by 26 percent from 2019 to 2030.

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/real-estate/our-insights...

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You think XYZ Company is going to listen to some consultant telling them in a press release that they should go back into the office because some REIT needs more money in it? Why would the CEO of a tech company care at all what the value of their leased office building is? Do you understand how leases and real estate works?
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I understand there's significant motivation behind the potential of losing $800 billion in value.

I think those kinds of numbers can have more fundamental implications.

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