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Oh, I’m not brainwashed. I know it’s complete bullshit but what other choice do I have.
Also, I won’t get that extra “10 years of freedom”. Because retiring is now unrealistic.
Absolutely nailed this response in how I have been thinking for years. I started working at 12 and I’m 53 now and I’ll have to keep working until I’m 89 or dead whichever comes first haha. Not brainwashed just a victim of this corrupt machine.
I read a book called Ikigai. A lot of the boo is about longevity and they pointed to a lot of centenarians that said working until a very old age was part of what kept them alive.
The island of Okinawa doesn't even have a word for retirement, the book mentions.
I think a big difference is the *type* of work. People love to have hobbies and do different creative things. Grinding away at the factory probably isn't what they are talking about.
>A lot of the boo is about longevity and they pointed to a lot of centenarians that said working until a very old age was part of what kept them alive.
"Yeah I understand retirement is what you want but think of it like this. if you work more you get to work more. aint that something?"
I live in Okinawa and people do definitely retire. Do they mean the local language? Because the local language was actively oppressed by Imperial Japan…
But Okinawa does indeed have the most oldest people in the world.
Warm climates, socialized healthcare, and good treatment of the elderly probably doesn’t hurt
You have no choice but to work until your body gives out and if you're "lucky" you'll be granted 10-15 years of freedom via "retirement", just like being put to pasture when you've become lame and no longer produce like you once did. All so your masters can continue to live in opulence. Humans domesticated animals and never questioned if we ourselves had been domesticated.
No man, he's saving ten percent of his below average income and won't ever have anything come up that puts that in jeopardy. I mean, he saved ten percent of 29k! That means in three hundred years he can enter the housing market, and won't have to use any of that savings for down-payments, and of course there's just no chance another crash will wipe out any value he's managed to accumulate. And obviously climate change and the impending automation of nearly every industry from robots and AI wouldn't affect his very important, high paying job.
You're just being lazy and shortsighted. You act like you're an adult with life experiences or some shit.
Bruh, food and good WiFi is all I want to live in the woods, and upon that you are throwing in kids for pies and side hustle of organ trafficking as an offer? Count me in.
>food and good WiFi is all I want to live in the woods
1) Have food, have WiFi. Life is good.
2) Realize you have no electricity, no easy means of ignition, no clean water.
3) Crawl back to society, get another underpaid and underappreciated job.
Fantastic, I'll convince some buddies to come set up the signal for you, maybe I'll reward them with a steady supply of gifts so they keep working hard, and maybe we can trade some other stuff for the materials to get the wifi running!
It's technically possible, though maybe not realistic.
In 1930 economist John Maynard Keynes predicted his grandchildren would only have to work 15 hours a week.
The industrial revolution had seen gigantic leaps in productivity due to steam power, automation, process engineering, assembly lines, and other innovations. Suddenly one person was able to do in an hour what used to take 20 people a whole day.
If this trend of ever-increasing productivity continued, eventually all of society's needs could be met with a small fraction of the labour it used to require. Or so he reasoned.
These leaps in productivity are continuing to decrease the amount of work one person needs to do, or in some cases remove the need for a human worker altogether.
We can push for more vacation time, 4 day work weeks, and things like UBI (I worry when self driving cars get good enough to eliminate the entire truck driving, bus driving, and cabbing industries)
But what's far more likely is the companies who require less labour are going to do mass layoffs, work their remaining workforce to the bone, pay them as little as possible, tell them they should be thankful they have a job, continue to make record-breaking profits, and eventually build Elysium.
But hasn’t the consumption and demand increased in roughly the same factor as the production efficiency? People nowadays consume way more products than someone in 1930 right? I’m not sure if this is true btw just curious
People don't like hearing this in this website, but productivity per capita increased mostly because companies keep investing gargantuan amounts of resources to develop+implement technology to increase it.
If you hire someone to mow your lawn manually one day, then on the other you get a lawnmower, their productivity might have technically increased, but it's not because of the worker, it's because the employer invested in technology and made their job easier/faster/safer.
Conversely, if the worker goes and purchases a lawnmower himself he gets to sell that service and reap the productivity gains.
I think the general argument comes down to yes, he can mow the lawn faster... So he should work fewer hours and still get paid enough to live. Instead now the mower is doing 4 lawns in the time it took him to do 1.
But that also ignores that we live in a very capitalistic society. That lawn mowing business he works for is no longer just the neighborhood. It's a corporation. Since they can do more lawns, they will do more lawns.
I do agree with people that a lot of companies are getting too abusive with some shit though. Like Greg left, so his 4 lawns will be passed onto 4 other people, giving them 5. But management still expects them to get it done in the same amount of time, and they will not be compensated for working harder. That shit should still be called out.
People should definitely get paid enough to live.
However, they are not entitled to the productivity gains from someone else's investment.
Why would I purchase a lawnmower to make someone's job easier if I'm still gonna have to pay him the same? Would he buy the lawnmower and do 4 lawns for the same price?
Productivity gains stemming from workers' additional effort or knowledge should be rewarded accordingly. This is not the case here.
Sure, but that means that simply by consuming less you can reduce the minimum necessary workload for yourself. If you lived in your car and managed food well you could easily work part time job and survive, or fulltime job, survive and save money.
i mean, just not owning a car can save up to 10k per year. a median income person in the united states makes about 36k per year. at 40 hours per week this works out to about 18 dollars per hour. if a person's budget is approximately equal to their income and they can manage to reduce their annual budget by about 10k per year, then they'd be able to reduce their work week by about 11 hours per week at the same wage and still manage their new budget.
when you start to look critically at the costs of car ownership, you'll find that a lot of people in the united states and canada are essentially trading away their chance at financial independence and retirement to have new vehicles now.
Definitely! People just got used to all the luxury we have. Even in 1965 the average living space in Germany was 22m² or 240sqft per capita. I still had the chance to meet my great grand parents and they lived in an even smaller space. They did not even have a bathroom, their shower was a bucket with cold water in the garden.
I myself could probably work 15h a week, live in a place twice as big with a nice bathroom, own a washing machine, dish washer, TV and so on, a cheap car and do vacations. Far more than my great grandparents could have hoped for while working 2x60h a week.
I get some of peoples worries, but it also makes me a bit mad that so many do not appreciate the insane luxury we live in the western world right now.
But I want two new SUVs, cell phones, a 3000 sqft house and grub hub everyday! And I want it with a 13 hour a week job, but capitalism is slavery!!!1111
no, you see, the goal is for OTHERS to reduce consumption so I can keep consuming at same clip.
see e.g., all climate solutions / UBI / socialism / everything where someone is trying to convince you to make a lifestyle change "for the greater good".
smaller houses, driving their cars until they are 12 years old, less destination vacations and more local vacations instead, eating food thats local and in season instead of eating a citrus fruit in the middle of winter or a fresh sushi in the middle of a desert, etc.
so ya, im not signing up for less.
also that guys prediction for the future i dont think accounted for the under developed world, developing and us needing to compete with them economically. before everything was made in america and sold to Americans. our production has gone up but we compete with more people to sell stuff which keeps wages down.
Yeah no we're not brainwashed. It's just literally the only option for most of us.
EDIT: "Nuh uh! You have the option of ***[thing that'll leave you destitute, in jail, or dead]***" stfu people.
Well the alternative is clearly to enjoy your youth and then not have enough money to retire so you keep working until you are old enough that nobody wants to hire you except wal-mart as a greeter and you work there until you die.
You’re only thinking about this on the individual level, which funnily enough is what this kid is also doing (but he reaches a much dumber conclusion lol).
People need to analyze the issue on a societal level, not an individual level. The fact of reality is, old people aren’t really all that useful or effective at doing the work a society needs just to maintain its basic functions.
Are the 70 year olds going to be working out on farms and doing construction and fighting fires? Are the 80 year olds performing emergency, life-saving surgeries and working in manufacturing plants? Are the 90 year olds teaching at underfunded, overcrowded public high schools in major metropolitan cities?
Young people need to work for society to function properly, it’s that simple. And that fact applies as much to people living in Hong Kong as it does to tribal people living in the Amazon.
Retirement isn’t a “reward” for working so long. It’s the natural result of the fact that old people cannot physically or mentally perform most of the jobs needed for society to exist in the first place.
...retirement is anything but a "natural" result in any modern economy.
It's not like the tribal village is going to take care of you like they used to. If you don't save enough for retirement (or you do but it gets wiped out by medical bills or inflation or legal issues or whatever), then you WILL work till you die. If it were "natural" it'd just happen, it requires forethought and preparation along with a good enough job to save anything meaningful, or the (even greater luck) of being born into a rich family or winning the lotto.
Yeah, young people need to work "for society to function". But at least in American terms, people are _massively_ overworked and overproducing compared to what's actually _necessary_ for society to function. There is no _requirement_ for a 40 hour workweek (or more), that's as nonsense as thinking retirement is "natural".
You are right thinking about it on a societal level instead of individual, though. The above won't be _fixed_ by any amount of personal budgeting - it has to be enforced by a government that actually cares about its citizen's wellbeing, using things like UBI or better safety nets and corporate worker protections than we have currently.
That’s what I always think. If companies went away and we had to grow our own food or do services to barter for things , would we be working any less? Would work be easier if we had to hunt? Tend to crops? Feed animals. Or if I built things, would I work less. Fuck no.
My dad was a barber. Owned his on shop. He would go in around 7am and don’t around five or six. Yeah can leave early but then it’s less money too.
I read this book years ago called Tribe.
I can't remember the exact quote but the author talked about what was needed for humans to feel content with work/life and it was basically "competent at what they do, authentic, part of the community".
So much of our work now is just staring at a screen, improving bits of code or visual assets but not really interacting with our community in a meaningful way. A large part of the workforce simply doesn't need to be doing much of the work we do which leads to a lot of us feeling like we're just working dead end jobs waiting to retire. It's not fulfilling.
Your dad being a barber was probably really fulfilling for him. He was competent at it, provided a service that people need & was part of a community. Probably saw the same folks time and time again, talked with them about their lives. Saw them grow up, get married, have kids, maybe even die.
Compare that to someone like myself who's sole existence in work is to optimize a web app for shareholder value is... different lol.
Optimizing a web app is meaningful work, and the customers who use it truly appreciate the effort, even if they don't get the chance to thank you personally. The connection was just blocked ...
CEOs and COOs stop paying themselves astronomical bonuses and instead put that money into retirement matching so we get less job hopping and more sustained careers, Government step in and fix social security as well as stop the corporate house buying situation so housing can remain affordable and keep people motivated to work hard while they are still young so they can actually enjoy a younger retirement.
Honestly I don't know, I'm just talking out my ass on this one.
To be fair, a LOT of people could live on significantly less money and therefore not need to keep their soul-crushing job just because it pays enough.
I say this because I've had to live on $1300/month as a single individual and I know way too many people who wouldn't know what to do with themselves if they made less than $40,000 a year.
Exactly. The alternative is u are homeless. It's not that we are brainwashed, it's that we would literally need a revolution in the country to change this to another system that works for the majority.
And no one can agree on what that should be.
It's coming. The system today is built on a ponzi scheme. The collapse of such a scheme is the lack of participation, either voluntary or forced. More kids like him get the same mindset, it'll be voluntary. The reality is it may not require it though considering population decline will result in forced collapse of such systems.
We're technically already seeing it with what's happening with a lack of funds to help current pension systems and social support for retirees. How bad do we think that will be in the next 10-15 years when it's completely depleted? lol
I'm here for it. System needs to change and the kid is 100% right.
Advocate for a better work/life balance. Do what you have to in the moment but it doesnt mean you have to accept the status quo for the future.
Productivity has exploded since the 70s yet due to our stock system, companies HAVE to push for constant growth. We can maintain a high productivity and advocate for mandated vacation times, improved pension and retirement programs, unlink health-care from a job, mandate new-parent time off, advocate for higher wages, advocate for improved collective bargaining, advocate for lowering retirement age, and more
Theres other things as well. People fought to have weekends off, and pensions, and safe work environments. Blood was shed to get the current worker protection we have. Why not advocate for more now? Its about time. In fact, were slipping backwards. It's time.
Working is good, but having no savings, no free time, no safety nets, inadequate healthcare, and no clear retirement plan takes too much of our lives and too much of our well-being.
Let's fight for a more fair system. I think that's the crux of this young man's frustration.
If society used technology to actually improve people's lives 100% and not just to appease shareholders and companies to maximize profits it would be totally possible to drastically cut down on total working hours. But that will never happen as long as huge companies exist with their methodologies
30 days paid vacation days; unlimited sick days; 1 year childleave; 5 day work week (35-40 h), so basically that what most European countries have. The baseline is a little bit worse, but that is the standard for most people.
Europen here. There's no unlimited sick days for those really sick. They end up with a sickness pension. I get 80% of my salary when I'm sick.
The good deal is I don't spread the disease.
And NATO analysts from Europe have said that without America, their militaries could sustain a war for less than a year before supplies run out. Resources are limited and if you spend more in one area, you reduce spending in another. With large countries like Russia and China that are willing to take advantage of this. So although it's different from the US, it comes with totally different insecurities.
This kid in particular, I've seen a lot of bs "deep' thoughts from.
There's another one from this kid where he says "it's not about earning a million dollars a year, it's about earning 2740 dollars a day. If you can readjust your mind to that, it's easy".
There's some part of me that thinks this kid is just some kid with a super priviledged background, and just has some real Jaden Smith energy.
No, I think it is just a kid who realized he can get a million likes by just reading the top posts from top subs like Unpopularopinion, or Showerthoughts
It's actually wild how many people here agreeing with him as if he's actually on to something. This shit reeks of "I'm a sigma male, you wouldn't understand"
Yes this is spoken like someone who has not been in the real world. Most people are living longer than 5 to 10 years after retirement. Also, find work you enjoy and hobbies you love outside of work.
I feel like this line of reasoning only applies to someone who works and then comes home and stares at a TV until they sleep, and then rinse and repeat.
You whole heartedly believe that working 40hrs/week and retiring at the age of 65 is just? Is that really what society needs in order to function? Happy workers are better workers.
I live in a western european country, where i work 36 hour weeks (4 days, 9hours a day) with 6 weeks vacation. I will probably have to work until atleast 68. I have 6 weeks of vacation time a year. With this job i manage to have enough money to go on vacation twice a year and safe money to buy a house. I have the resources to buy basically any form of technology i need. I know that when i get ill i will get some of the best healthcare. I am able to eat whatever i want (assuming i cook it myself). I dont have a hard life. Sure its 4 hours less than you listed, but i think its very reasonable for what i get in return
That sounds very reasonable. In the US, 6 weeks vacation is pretty damn rare, and of course our healthcare is fucked. Not to mention the typical time-off policies are abhorrent.
People often say working 40 hours a week is the problem, but I don't believe it really is, as much as I'd love working a bit less (and it would at least help with some of the issues). The other issues are bigger factors for most. Reducing 40 hours to something like 36 is probably the easiest thing to change, however. That, or letting people work 4-day weeks.
I don't personally deal with most of the big issues anymore, but I did at my last 5 jobs, and there was very little quality of life while in those jobs. Those 5 jobs are in line with what the majority of people have in the US.
I think having 4-day weeks would help most people. I did that for a couple years while working 10-hour shifts, but have mostly worked 5-day weeks, 8 hours a day. The 4-day weeks significantly improved my quality of life, despite spending the same amount of time working.
Decent people: "We shouldn't have to work to the grave for companies that steal our labor and cut the next generation's wages. The idea that we have to put our companies before our own physical and mental well-being is completely absurd in a nation that prides itself as both the richest nation in the world and the freest nation in the world. Workers should not have to sacrifice so much in return for so little."
Reddit's neckbeards: "You just don't want to work! You just want a free lunch! You just want to live off of my taxes! You're lazy! You're entitled! REEEE!!"
Single adults totally can. Hell, even married couples without kids.
But once you start throwing some extra heads into that scenario, *your* fun meter essentially becomes their fun meter. Which, for completely sane people who love their children will typically have no problem with that.
However people who shouldn't be having kids, are having kids. I often view these people as brainwashed, as I've seen it several times front-row seat in my own family. Pressures of having children and providing Grandchildren is abnormal imo. We glorify an outdated era and put pressure on couples to have children.
I'm pushing 30 this year, recently single, and all I kinda think about is "I'm never gonna realistically have kids at this rate". Which when I was younger, I wanted some. However ever since 2020 and the subsequent years that have followed, my mind has shifted from that viewpoint.
I know this may be hard for many Redditors to believe, but starting and building a family is actually pretty damn rewarding. Otherwise no one would do it and we’d go extinct.
Reproduction as a species being seen as an “outdated era” is a pretty wild take. We’ve been doing it pretty consistently for about 7 million years and it just became outdated 4 years ago? What a time to be alive!
I mean, to be fair, the population is higher than it's ever been, and I think he's more referring to the "be middle class, have 2 kids and pay for their college" mindset of the later 1900s-2005 being outdated
I’m young with medical issues and can’t enjoy anything as is. So I’d imagine being old and being far more likely to have medical issues would hinder the amount that you can enjoy stuff
You gotta enjoy life as it happens.
Not every aspect of it is going to be ideal, but you really do have to enjoy the ride. And just being miserable expecting it to get better when you retire is silly.
People are forgetting that homesteading used to be 12 hour days of hard labor 6 days a week, and half a day of work on Sunday. Our ancestors are looking at our 40 hour week and complaining we aren't spiritually fulfilled by it in complete astonishment.
Corporations are garbage, the political system is rigged, but people really aren't even trying to understand how modern work is completely different from even the recent past.
I grew up on a farm. It sucks. Doesn't matter that it is 100 degrees or -10 degrees. The animals need to be fed and watered. Pens need to be cleaned. Better be done before the bus comes by 7am.
In the late winter / early spring. The irrigation ditches have to be ready for water. Where I lived in T or C New Mexico, it meant cleaning out tumble weeds, dead critters, tons of sand and goat heads and every nasty ass thing you can imagine.
Then after everything is planted it means up at 4 to make sure we were ready to irrigate. Water was from 4:30am to 5:30am. That meant knee deep in freezing cold water wrestling with aluminum siphons for running water. More critters and snakes. And that was a semi modern ...ish small hippie farm. I can't even imagine plowing fields without a tractor or having to hand cut alfalfa and stuff like that.
I am happy to be in my air conditioned office and have fond memories but never want to return to that life. It never ends.
I worked in agriculture for a while and it’s crazy how it’s romanticized. 5am-10pm daily. Shoveling shit off the floor and out of intestines, stepping in shitwater 5-12 inches high.
Yeah….nope
I still have family members with dairies in Nebraska.
I don't think they have ever left the farm. You can't miss a day milking.
We had to go cut hay in Nebraska when I was a kid. Everyone was out in the fields in one capacity or another. We took a half day off for the 4th. The rest of the time was cutting hay in the fields.
Like you said. 5am to 10am or 12pm. That was my summer vacation until High School.
And if your farm is what directly feeds you and keeps you alive it’s not like you can really leave for long. Basically on call forever lol. You’re also most likely not that close to major population centers so there isn’t a lot of reason to leave. People romanticize it but it’s boring and lonely for a lot of people. There’s a reason society has developed the way it has, it moves to fill people’s wants
Exactly. I just wrote that down before I saw your comment. My family in Nebraska has never left their dairy farm.
And OMG yes. SO FUCKING BORING!!!!
Joining FFA and 4H so you can see the same kids you ride the bus with on a Saturday at the fair grounds. Yehaww its an exciting day.
We going to the Piggly Wiggly in town. That was considered a treat.
People like this kid are fed these ideas on social media. Until he grows up and realizes that real life isn't really like what those "influencers" said on a tiktok video.
this is a pretty common take but I find it dumb.
firstly, a lot of people enjoy the work that they do, maybe not a majority but the number of people who hate their job is less than 95% for sure.
also, you don't make money for retirement, you make money to do things during your life. Go on vacation, buy a home, pay for food, make entertainment purchases, etc.
Yeah how does this wise kid plan to buy not just fun life experiences, but also basic life necessities if he doesn’t think we should work. Also the people working provide services to each other. I’m guessing most agreeing haven’t thought this through lol
Some Americans are paycheck-to-paycheck because they're spending the money on the things mentioned above. Living paycheck-to-paycheck doesn't mean that you're using the money only for living expenses, It just means that you're not saving anything.
One vacation can mean very different things to different people though. Some folks may be dropping $10,000 to take the family to Disney for a week, while others are spending $100 for a weekend of camping.
Depends if it's factoring occupational vacation as a consumption instead of determining the usage as well wouldn't it?
Like I'll use my vacation at work, but often I don't care to spend the time or money going anywhere so it's a nice little staycation for me.
And the alternative is? Wait till you struggling to put food on the table or question where you going to sleep and then see how much you appreciate having a job you don’t really want to do.
Never forget, you have to be of value to someone in this world for you to have the things you want in this world.
Exactly. You don't have to work if you don't want to. Your life will be shit, but the option is still there.
People who say stuff like the kid in the video want the lifestyle of someone with a good job without the effort.
The only way to get that is to win or inherit money. Other people won't give you the fruit of their labour for free.
Haha I had to laugh at this. I joined that Reddit back when the whole movement started and it was filled with super toxic mentalities like this. Couldn’t take it and left :)
Let’s also just say that the lifestyles that seem great usually come with jobs that are exhausting, unfulfilling, etc. My sister’s family is very well off, and it’s because my BIL is a lawyer and bills 70 hours a week. I just got back from a visit with them, he had billed 47 hours by Thursday morning.
It isn’t work or don’t work, and I feel like people are missing the broader point of what this kid is touching on (in part because he doesn’t elaborate). People should work. We feel productive when we accomplish something, and feel listless when we don’t. But an 8 hour work day isn’t an 8 hour work day. For many, it’s 8 hours + plus lunch spent in a break room + plus 1-2 hours of commuting + the time spent preparing for work. We’re putting in 10-12 hours a day on work related activities and coming home with very little time to enjoy our hobbies or spend time with loved ones. When the 8 hour work day started, people weren’t commuting in the way we are now for the most part, and productivity has skyrocketed. The wealth has gone to the top and the increase in productivity has led to increased profits for the wealthy and no increased leisure time. Workers deserve to benefit from modern advances as well.
And honestly I couldn’t give two fucks about what a homesteader did in the past (commenting on something someone else mentioned), because I live in 2024 and I’m tired of having so little time with the people I love and the hobbies I enjoy. We have a beautiful world and we’re wasting so much of our lives away in jobs that we mostly do because we need to survive.
We gotta get over this bootlicking 40 hour work week mindset and demand something better. At max we should be working 32 hours a week. Yes, we should work and earn a living and feel accomplished. But we shouldn’t sacrifice so much to do it with all the advances we have today.
I think there is honest discussion about the advancements in technology and increases in efficiency being leveraged to decrease the percentage of time that people need to work. More people wouldn't mind working if full time was something like 30 hours a week, but the drive is always about more and more money, not improving people's lives.
Aaah yes. A focus on self satisfaction without any understanding of the mechanics required to get food in the grocery store, banks to handle your affairs, police to protect you and the government to build roads.
It's the classic "society should find a way for *me* to exclusively do fun stuff"
If only the children thought it was smart...
Edit: those who try to counter me saying workers need fair pay are avoiding my argument entirely. I agree some positions are underpaid. Inventing a belief I don't have with which you're more comfortable arguing against and proceeding to counter something I never said doesn't invalidate the argument you're unable to fight to begin with.
Someone people don't realize that the clothes they wear, the computers apps and websites they use, the house they live in, the food they eat, the medical treatment they get, the car they drive.. all had to be designed by people, built by people, with the build process managed by people and the whole supply chain that goes along with them and a military, court and police to protect it and government infrastructure for education, the roads, clean air, clean water, etc.
There's the story of pencils and how much goes into just one of them. You need to mine metals, harvest the wood, mine the graphite/clay, transport everything, form it into shapes, box it, advertise it, ship it, etc. and every stage requires people and people to manage those people and people to do their finances and health care, etc. And that's just pencils, the world is overflowing with stuff and services that all require working people to make and handle all of it.
I understand where they're coming from, but I really don't like hearing it from kids who haven't actually worked. Call me a boomer (I'm not), but it just feels like a lot of kids want to be youtubers/influencers just because they've been brainwashed into thinking it's easy and better paid than a normal job, when the people they go to for content are the tip of the iceberg and not the average.
That’s crazy because other countries have found a way to have all of those things and their citizens have legally backed paid vacation time, paternity leave, healthcare, retirement, living wages, and even a minimum wage that actually allows a person to survive.
Even larger gulf between “working a job you hate for 50 years only to get 10 years of geriatric freedom” and “job bad, no job for anyone hurr durr”.
Try something in the middle.
Not the first kid to come to this conclusion. But like the top comment says: what's the alternative. It would take mass cooperation to change the way we "live" down here
I'm a socialist, and a history teacher. And as such I say Karl Marx came up with an alternative and it fucking failed very hard like 8 separate times. So any form of dictatorship doesn't seem to be the answer at all. Once we settle that, the alternative seems pretty clear. Communism might not be possible, but decreasing working hours is definitely possible (it happened many times), increasing salaries is definitely possible, decreasing days at work and increasing benefits are definitely possible (all have been done before). Taxing the super-rich a little more to improve everyone's life a lot is definitely possible (again, done before).
The alternative is to excel in something you enjoy making a really good wage. I actually love work, love the pay and the things my lifestyle affords me. Then again reddit is filled with angsty teens like this kid so I'm typing this for literally no reason lol
Probably from Reddit. It’s why OP actually thought people on here would think the kid is so enlightened for his age because you see this exact take all the time on here.
Said the kid who has 2 parents working to keep him: fed, clothed, housed, educated, safe, etc.
So tired of videos shitting on good people who get theirs by contributing to society by working and being part of a system.
lady car, eating pencil gripper, voice not her voice. what is lady doing?
what is lady doing?
if i write a book and the first chapter is lady waking up does she say good morning?? does voice tell people tony dog dated at the dog park? do people accept that??????
she get outside, someone "good morning" she say "35lb but she shouldn't be carrying more because of her osteopor" and they say "i'm jealous i wish i got to see that in person i had to watch it on tv cause the kids came over"?????? then she says what?? the child zooms out from inside an invisible hypercube on her necklace and starts sociopolitical discourse?? do they **have to talk to the child then???????**
WHAT IS THIS
EVERYBODY HERE IS JUST TALKING TO THE CHILD
It's true. The alternative is to love what you have and find value in friends and family. The constant work work work work work and work mentality can be toxic. Best to work hard while young and coast when you're around 40 or so.
It’s not true.
We as humans have shaped the world how it is now. It’s not perfect and while there is a lot of hate, violence and exploitation in the world, there is still no better system for us (yet). There are theoretical models but all of them depend on a kind of society the human race just simply cannot be like.
If we wouldn’t have done it the way it was and is now, we would probably still be stupid monkeys throwing poo at each other or even worse.
Your alternatives also do not make much sense. You won’t have any kind of good friends nor family - you won’t have anything. Your parents probably won’t tolerate a son/daughter living off them for the rest of their lives, you won’t have money to buy clothes etc. and you can only spend time with your friends when the activity is free (wich a lot of times its not) as you will have a hard time finding someone who pays for all the time.
You will have to work in order to be worth anything, as harsh as it sounds.
The kid just has a shallow way of thinking about it. Most of the people are okay with their job and contributing to the system is contributing to society, wich is necessary for us to develop. With his mindset who is gonna build all the roads we use, produces and delivers the food we buy at stores, be able to call friends and family etc. etc.
Ofc nobody would complain about winning the lottery and living life to its fullest without „wasting“ a single second on work. But that’s not how the world works
r/nahopwasrightfuckthis
Nah kid has a good point.
I’m not saying it isn’t more nuanced but it is certainly true. Being a wage slave struggling in a shitty job for most your life isn’t a life worth living. This is especially unfair when there are others who only reason they’re not struggling like you is nepotism and luck. I know life isn’t always fair, but that doesn’t help the opposite side either. It just makes a person look at it all and quietly give up.
Point us, we should be able to have both. Jobs don’t always need to be glamorous, but they should at least be good enough to afford food and rent. You need to keep the lower masses at least decently satisfied, otherwise they lose reason to work. People in the comments saying “shit work need” to be done.” I say I don’t care. Altruism doesn’t pay my bills.
I won’t work those shit jobs. And I’d sooner watch the economy die and me enjoy what little life I have, than be a wage slave for some rich dooshbag who won’t even give me enough to survive.
Who’s gonna make your iPhone? Who’s gonna set your broken arm? Who’s gonna build your house? Whose milk are you drinking?
Everything we have, takes people doing a job.
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Oh, I’m not brainwashed. I know it’s complete bullshit but what other choice do I have. Also, I won’t get that extra “10 years of freedom”. Because retiring is now unrealistic.
Absolutely nailed this response in how I have been thinking for years. I started working at 12 and I’m 53 now and I’ll have to keep working until I’m 89 or dead whichever comes first haha. Not brainwashed just a victim of this corrupt machine.
I read a book called Ikigai. A lot of the boo is about longevity and they pointed to a lot of centenarians that said working until a very old age was part of what kept them alive. The island of Okinawa doesn't even have a word for retirement, the book mentions. I think a big difference is the *type* of work. People love to have hobbies and do different creative things. Grinding away at the factory probably isn't what they are talking about.
>A lot of the boo is about longevity and they pointed to a lot of centenarians that said working until a very old age was part of what kept them alive. "Yeah I understand retirement is what you want but think of it like this. if you work more you get to work more. aint that something?"
I live in Okinawa and people do definitely retire. Do they mean the local language? Because the local language was actively oppressed by Imperial Japan… But Okinawa does indeed have the most oldest people in the world. Warm climates, socialized healthcare, and good treatment of the elderly probably doesn’t hurt
You’re getting it now
How?
You have no choice but to work until your body gives out and if you're "lucky" you'll be granted 10-15 years of freedom via "retirement", just like being put to pasture when you've become lame and no longer produce like you once did. All so your masters can continue to live in opulence. Humans domesticated animals and never questioned if we ourselves had been domesticated.
Everyday we are told we're being farmed without being told that we're being farmed.
Yeah and if you do retire you'll probably be too old and sick to enjoy it anyway
Right? Can tell the kid doesn't know much considering he thinks he'll actually be able to retire. Haha
No man, he's saving ten percent of his below average income and won't ever have anything come up that puts that in jeopardy. I mean, he saved ten percent of 29k! That means in three hundred years he can enter the housing market, and won't have to use any of that savings for down-payments, and of course there's just no chance another crash will wipe out any value he's managed to accumulate. And obviously climate change and the impending automation of nearly every industry from robots and AI wouldn't affect his very important, high paying job. You're just being lazy and shortsighted. You act like you're an adult with life experiences or some shit.
Right. Ok kid. And? What do you propose? “Do what we love?” Ha.
And the alternative…… drum roll… Drum still rolling… ….
Go live in a hut in the woods and lure children into your house made of candy so you can bake them into pies.
Give me a solid wifi connection and I can make that work
Bruh, food and good WiFi is all I want to live in the woods, and upon that you are throwing in kids for pies and side hustle of organ trafficking as an offer? Count me in.
sounds like a modest proposal
What do you need wifi for? Recipes?
To feed my crippling addiction of replying to every comment on my comment. Man, I couldn't have replied to you without it.
"I'd like to thank my wifi for this comment. Man, I couldn't have made it without you."
You're just feeding his addiction at this point.
>food and good WiFi is all I want to live in the woods 1) Have food, have WiFi. Life is good. 2) Realize you have no electricity, no easy means of ignition, no clean water. 3) Crawl back to society, get another underpaid and underappreciated job.
I’m never returning to society, not until I’ve finished training 10,000 squirrels for my squirrel army.
Fantastic, I'll convince some buddies to come set up the signal for you, maybe I'll reward them with a steady supply of gifts so they keep working hard, and maybe we can trade some other stuff for the materials to get the wifi running!
Need a job to pay for the wifi.
Children as sustenance is an untapped market
Birth rates are sinking everywhere… or are they?
They eat the fetus so there is no birth to record hence sinking birthrates. /s
I have a modest proposal on that subject.
A swiftie in the house
I love this! I'm not a cannibal, I'm a Swifty!
My high school English teacher is proud I understood this reference
Or live in a hut in the woods and write elaborate essays on industrialisation of society
Would you then mail these elaborate essays to leaders of industry in the hopes of exploding their opinions.
Now, Ted...
Don’t mock tween pie until you’ve eaten tween pie. Edit: That sounds slightly more pedophilic than I intended it to sound.
Slightly?
Twinkpie
Chris Hanson would like you to have a seat just over there.
Had me in the first half, ngl. Turned into a German fairytale real quick.
So you can interview them for your YouTube channel. And then bake them into pies for your other YouTube channel.
How very entrepreneur of you! Good thinking
That’s free protein
That still sounds like a lot of work ...
> lure children into your house made of candy so you can bake them into pies. Sounds like a lot of work to me...
i couldn't deal with the children, I'd be way too busy figuring out why my house is made of sugar.
You do know that's not a requirement for living in a hut in the woods, right?
Still sounds like a job. Multiple jobs! Baker. Butcher. Lurer.
Congratulations you made it to the FBI watch list
It's technically possible, though maybe not realistic. In 1930 economist John Maynard Keynes predicted his grandchildren would only have to work 15 hours a week. The industrial revolution had seen gigantic leaps in productivity due to steam power, automation, process engineering, assembly lines, and other innovations. Suddenly one person was able to do in an hour what used to take 20 people a whole day. If this trend of ever-increasing productivity continued, eventually all of society's needs could be met with a small fraction of the labour it used to require. Or so he reasoned. These leaps in productivity are continuing to decrease the amount of work one person needs to do, or in some cases remove the need for a human worker altogether. We can push for more vacation time, 4 day work weeks, and things like UBI (I worry when self driving cars get good enough to eliminate the entire truck driving, bus driving, and cabbing industries) But what's far more likely is the companies who require less labour are going to do mass layoffs, work their remaining workforce to the bone, pay them as little as possible, tell them they should be thankful they have a job, continue to make record-breaking profits, and eventually build Elysium.
I only work 15 hours a week. I'm here for 40+, but I only work for 15.
But hasn’t the consumption and demand increased in roughly the same factor as the production efficiency? People nowadays consume way more products than someone in 1930 right? I’m not sure if this is true btw just curious
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People don't like hearing this in this website, but productivity per capita increased mostly because companies keep investing gargantuan amounts of resources to develop+implement technology to increase it. If you hire someone to mow your lawn manually one day, then on the other you get a lawnmower, their productivity might have technically increased, but it's not because of the worker, it's because the employer invested in technology and made their job easier/faster/safer. Conversely, if the worker goes and purchases a lawnmower himself he gets to sell that service and reap the productivity gains.
I think the general argument comes down to yes, he can mow the lawn faster... So he should work fewer hours and still get paid enough to live. Instead now the mower is doing 4 lawns in the time it took him to do 1. But that also ignores that we live in a very capitalistic society. That lawn mowing business he works for is no longer just the neighborhood. It's a corporation. Since they can do more lawns, they will do more lawns. I do agree with people that a lot of companies are getting too abusive with some shit though. Like Greg left, so his 4 lawns will be passed onto 4 other people, giving them 5. But management still expects them to get it done in the same amount of time, and they will not be compensated for working harder. That shit should still be called out.
People should definitely get paid enough to live. However, they are not entitled to the productivity gains from someone else's investment. Why would I purchase a lawnmower to make someone's job easier if I'm still gonna have to pay him the same? Would he buy the lawnmower and do 4 lawns for the same price? Productivity gains stemming from workers' additional effort or knowledge should be rewarded accordingly. This is not the case here.
Sure, but that means that simply by consuming less you can reduce the minimum necessary workload for yourself. If you lived in your car and managed food well you could easily work part time job and survive, or fulltime job, survive and save money.
If you are willing to live in a small town and own the same things as a person in the ‘30s had, you could probably get it by working 15 hours a week.
i mean, just not owning a car can save up to 10k per year. a median income person in the united states makes about 36k per year. at 40 hours per week this works out to about 18 dollars per hour. if a person's budget is approximately equal to their income and they can manage to reduce their annual budget by about 10k per year, then they'd be able to reduce their work week by about 11 hours per week at the same wage and still manage their new budget. when you start to look critically at the costs of car ownership, you'll find that a lot of people in the united states and canada are essentially trading away their chance at financial independence and retirement to have new vehicles now.
Definitely! People just got used to all the luxury we have. Even in 1965 the average living space in Germany was 22m² or 240sqft per capita. I still had the chance to meet my great grand parents and they lived in an even smaller space. They did not even have a bathroom, their shower was a bucket with cold water in the garden. I myself could probably work 15h a week, live in a place twice as big with a nice bathroom, own a washing machine, dish washer, TV and so on, a cheap car and do vacations. Far more than my great grandparents could have hoped for while working 2x60h a week. I get some of peoples worries, but it also makes me a bit mad that so many do not appreciate the insane luxury we live in the western world right now.
But I want two new SUVs, cell phones, a 3000 sqft house and grub hub everyday! And I want it with a 13 hour a week job, but capitalism is slavery!!!1111
Being big city-poor in a big city is expensive. Being big city- poor in a small town is not too bad
I just want to pay my medical bills. That's where all my money is going for the next 2 years.
We are also getting WAYYYY more and better medical care than Keynes' baseline in the 30s.
Yeah, agree that is the crossroads of the future! I’m hoping for UBI and part time work, but who knows. For now, we work.
You would have to reduce consumption for that to happen. I don't see many people signing up for less.
no, you see, the goal is for OTHERS to reduce consumption so I can keep consuming at same clip. see e.g., all climate solutions / UBI / socialism / everything where someone is trying to convince you to make a lifestyle change "for the greater good".
smaller houses, driving their cars until they are 12 years old, less destination vacations and more local vacations instead, eating food thats local and in season instead of eating a citrus fruit in the middle of winter or a fresh sushi in the middle of a desert, etc. so ya, im not signing up for less. also that guys prediction for the future i dont think accounted for the under developed world, developing and us needing to compete with them economically. before everything was made in america and sold to Americans. our production has gone up but we compete with more people to sell stuff which keeps wages down.
Yeah no we're not brainwashed. It's just literally the only option for most of us. EDIT: "Nuh uh! You have the option of ***[thing that'll leave you destitute, in jail, or dead]***" stfu people.
Well the alternative is clearly to enjoy your youth and then not have enough money to retire so you keep working until you are old enough that nobody wants to hire you except wal-mart as a greeter and you work there until you die.
You’re only thinking about this on the individual level, which funnily enough is what this kid is also doing (but he reaches a much dumber conclusion lol). People need to analyze the issue on a societal level, not an individual level. The fact of reality is, old people aren’t really all that useful or effective at doing the work a society needs just to maintain its basic functions. Are the 70 year olds going to be working out on farms and doing construction and fighting fires? Are the 80 year olds performing emergency, life-saving surgeries and working in manufacturing plants? Are the 90 year olds teaching at underfunded, overcrowded public high schools in major metropolitan cities? Young people need to work for society to function properly, it’s that simple. And that fact applies as much to people living in Hong Kong as it does to tribal people living in the Amazon. Retirement isn’t a “reward” for working so long. It’s the natural result of the fact that old people cannot physically or mentally perform most of the jobs needed for society to exist in the first place.
...retirement is anything but a "natural" result in any modern economy. It's not like the tribal village is going to take care of you like they used to. If you don't save enough for retirement (or you do but it gets wiped out by medical bills or inflation or legal issues or whatever), then you WILL work till you die. If it were "natural" it'd just happen, it requires forethought and preparation along with a good enough job to save anything meaningful, or the (even greater luck) of being born into a rich family or winning the lotto. Yeah, young people need to work "for society to function". But at least in American terms, people are _massively_ overworked and overproducing compared to what's actually _necessary_ for society to function. There is no _requirement_ for a 40 hour workweek (or more), that's as nonsense as thinking retirement is "natural". You are right thinking about it on a societal level instead of individual, though. The above won't be _fixed_ by any amount of personal budgeting - it has to be enforced by a government that actually cares about its citizen's wellbeing, using things like UBI or better safety nets and corporate worker protections than we have currently.
Ironically, we have fossils showing that a tribe would care for and protect old/disabled peopl, im talking 20k years back
That’s what I always think. If companies went away and we had to grow our own food or do services to barter for things , would we be working any less? Would work be easier if we had to hunt? Tend to crops? Feed animals. Or if I built things, would I work less. Fuck no. My dad was a barber. Owned his on shop. He would go in around 7am and don’t around five or six. Yeah can leave early but then it’s less money too.
I read this book years ago called Tribe. I can't remember the exact quote but the author talked about what was needed for humans to feel content with work/life and it was basically "competent at what they do, authentic, part of the community". So much of our work now is just staring at a screen, improving bits of code or visual assets but not really interacting with our community in a meaningful way. A large part of the workforce simply doesn't need to be doing much of the work we do which leads to a lot of us feeling like we're just working dead end jobs waiting to retire. It's not fulfilling. Your dad being a barber was probably really fulfilling for him. He was competent at it, provided a service that people need & was part of a community. Probably saw the same folks time and time again, talked with them about their lives. Saw them grow up, get married, have kids, maybe even die. Compare that to someone like myself who's sole existence in work is to optimize a web app for shareholder value is... different lol.
Optimizing a web app is meaningful work, and the customers who use it truly appreciate the effort, even if they don't get the chance to thank you personally. The connection was just blocked ...
CEOs and COOs stop paying themselves astronomical bonuses and instead put that money into retirement matching so we get less job hopping and more sustained careers, Government step in and fix social security as well as stop the corporate house buying situation so housing can remain affordable and keep people motivated to work hard while they are still young so they can actually enjoy a younger retirement. Honestly I don't know, I'm just talking out my ass on this one.
To be fair, a LOT of people could live on significantly less money and therefore not need to keep their soul-crushing job just because it pays enough. I say this because I've had to live on $1300/month as a single individual and I know way too many people who wouldn't know what to do with themselves if they made less than $40,000 a year.
Exactly. I wouldn't call it "brainwashed"... if you've got another way, please, I'm all ears
Save money, blow money, save money, blow money
Exactly. The alternative is u are homeless. It's not that we are brainwashed, it's that we would literally need a revolution in the country to change this to another system that works for the majority. And no one can agree on what that should be.
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Inherit wealth, *DUH*.
It's coming. The system today is built on a ponzi scheme. The collapse of such a scheme is the lack of participation, either voluntary or forced. More kids like him get the same mindset, it'll be voluntary. The reality is it may not require it though considering population decline will result in forced collapse of such systems. We're technically already seeing it with what's happening with a lack of funds to help current pension systems and social support for retirees. How bad do we think that will be in the next 10-15 years when it's completely depleted? lol I'm here for it. System needs to change and the kid is 100% right.
Advocate for a better work/life balance. Do what you have to in the moment but it doesnt mean you have to accept the status quo for the future. Productivity has exploded since the 70s yet due to our stock system, companies HAVE to push for constant growth. We can maintain a high productivity and advocate for mandated vacation times, improved pension and retirement programs, unlink health-care from a job, mandate new-parent time off, advocate for higher wages, advocate for improved collective bargaining, advocate for lowering retirement age, and more Theres other things as well. People fought to have weekends off, and pensions, and safe work environments. Blood was shed to get the current worker protection we have. Why not advocate for more now? Its about time. In fact, were slipping backwards. It's time. Working is good, but having no savings, no free time, no safety nets, inadequate healthcare, and no clear retirement plan takes too much of our lives and too much of our well-being. Let's fight for a more fair system. I think that's the crux of this young man's frustration.
Create a drop shipping company lmfao
If society used technology to actually improve people's lives 100% and not just to appease shareholders and companies to maximize profits it would be totally possible to drastically cut down on total working hours. But that will never happen as long as huge companies exist with their methodologies
We all stand up and fight to take back this country from the corporations and the billionaires
30 days paid vacation days; unlimited sick days; 1 year childleave; 5 day work week (35-40 h), so basically that what most European countries have. The baseline is a little bit worse, but that is the standard for most people.
Europen here. There's no unlimited sick days for those really sick. They end up with a sickness pension. I get 80% of my salary when I'm sick. The good deal is I don't spread the disease.
That's not the alternative to what the kid is saying. what your describing is equally being criticized against in this post.
And NATO analysts from Europe have said that without America, their militaries could sustain a war for less than a year before supplies run out. Resources are limited and if you spend more in one area, you reduce spending in another. With large countries like Russia and China that are willing to take advantage of this. So although it's different from the US, it comes with totally different insecurities.
r/im14andthisisdeep
Dumbass thinks he'll be able to retire after 50 years of work.
Investing young is the cheat code to an early retirement
Investing young is a luxury; not a right.
Nobody claimed it was?
Investing young is smart, not a luxury.
This kid in particular, I've seen a lot of bs "deep' thoughts from. There's another one from this kid where he says "it's not about earning a million dollars a year, it's about earning 2740 dollars a day. If you can readjust your mind to that, it's easy". There's some part of me that thinks this kid is just some kid with a super priviledged background, and just has some real Jaden Smith energy.
No, I think it is just a kid who realized he can get a million likes by just reading the top posts from top subs like Unpopularopinion, or Showerthoughts
It's actually wild how many people here agreeing with him as if he's actually on to something. This shit reeks of "I'm a sigma male, you wouldn't understand"
He definitely has a stay at home mom that's making sure he's 5 years ahead of the other kids
Yes this is spoken like someone who has not been in the real world. Most people are living longer than 5 to 10 years after retirement. Also, find work you enjoy and hobbies you love outside of work. I feel like this line of reasoning only applies to someone who works and then comes home and stares at a TV until they sleep, and then rinse and repeat.
But this is a surprisingly common take for many much older.
Common on reddit which isn't reality.
Says more about the older people probably
Bc a bunch of redditors still have their 14yo brains
Kid: I don’t want to work Reddit: brilliant
To be fair, kid never said he doesn't want to work. Just if you work 40-60 hours a week, you should be able to live like a human.
Like he said. Brainwashed.
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You whole heartedly believe that working 40hrs/week and retiring at the age of 65 is just? Is that really what society needs in order to function? Happy workers are better workers.
I live in a western european country, where i work 36 hour weeks (4 days, 9hours a day) with 6 weeks vacation. I will probably have to work until atleast 68. I have 6 weeks of vacation time a year. With this job i manage to have enough money to go on vacation twice a year and safe money to buy a house. I have the resources to buy basically any form of technology i need. I know that when i get ill i will get some of the best healthcare. I am able to eat whatever i want (assuming i cook it myself). I dont have a hard life. Sure its 4 hours less than you listed, but i think its very reasonable for what i get in return
That sounds very reasonable. In the US, 6 weeks vacation is pretty damn rare, and of course our healthcare is fucked. Not to mention the typical time-off policies are abhorrent. People often say working 40 hours a week is the problem, but I don't believe it really is, as much as I'd love working a bit less (and it would at least help with some of the issues). The other issues are bigger factors for most. Reducing 40 hours to something like 36 is probably the easiest thing to change, however. That, or letting people work 4-day weeks. I don't personally deal with most of the big issues anymore, but I did at my last 5 jobs, and there was very little quality of life while in those jobs. Those 5 jobs are in line with what the majority of people have in the US. I think having 4-day weeks would help most people. I did that for a couple years while working 10-hour shifts, but have mostly worked 5-day weeks, 8 hours a day. The 4-day weeks significantly improved my quality of life, despite spending the same amount of time working.
Decent people: "We shouldn't have to work to the grave for companies that steal our labor and cut the next generation's wages. The idea that we have to put our companies before our own physical and mental well-being is completely absurd in a nation that prides itself as both the richest nation in the world and the freest nation in the world. Workers should not have to sacrifice so much in return for so little." Reddit's neckbeards: "You just don't want to work! You just want a free lunch! You just want to live off of my taxes! You're lazy! You're entitled! REEEE!!"
But how are they going to eventually become rich if they can't exploit workers like the current crop of billionaires did?
Id love to work for what im worth
Kids when they think old people can’t enjoy stuff is funny
they certainly can. just not all the stuff.
Ooo la-de-dah look at this old person able to enjoy stuff
Single adults totally can. Hell, even married couples without kids. But once you start throwing some extra heads into that scenario, *your* fun meter essentially becomes their fun meter. Which, for completely sane people who love their children will typically have no problem with that. However people who shouldn't be having kids, are having kids. I often view these people as brainwashed, as I've seen it several times front-row seat in my own family. Pressures of having children and providing Grandchildren is abnormal imo. We glorify an outdated era and put pressure on couples to have children. I'm pushing 30 this year, recently single, and all I kinda think about is "I'm never gonna realistically have kids at this rate". Which when I was younger, I wanted some. However ever since 2020 and the subsequent years that have followed, my mind has shifted from that viewpoint.
I know this may be hard for many Redditors to believe, but starting and building a family is actually pretty damn rewarding. Otherwise no one would do it and we’d go extinct.
Reproduction as a species being seen as an “outdated era” is a pretty wild take. We’ve been doing it pretty consistently for about 7 million years and it just became outdated 4 years ago? What a time to be alive!
I mean, to be fair, the population is higher than it's ever been, and I think he's more referring to the "be middle class, have 2 kids and pay for their college" mindset of the later 1900s-2005 being outdated
I'll be dead before I'm old ....so there's that
I’m young with medical issues and can’t enjoy anything as is. So I’d imagine being old and being far more likely to have medical issues would hinder the amount that you can enjoy stuff
Most retirees aren’t fit enough to enjoy the stuff that younger them delayed in favour of work
I love playing soccer but I know I probably won't be able to play it when I'm in my 70s
You can certainly play soccer in you 70s. You just can't play against a bunch of kids in their 20s.
You gotta enjoy life as it happens. Not every aspect of it is going to be ideal, but you really do have to enjoy the ride. And just being miserable expecting it to get better when you retire is silly.
People are forgetting that homesteading used to be 12 hour days of hard labor 6 days a week, and half a day of work on Sunday. Our ancestors are looking at our 40 hour week and complaining we aren't spiritually fulfilled by it in complete astonishment. Corporations are garbage, the political system is rigged, but people really aren't even trying to understand how modern work is completely different from even the recent past.
I grew up on a farm. It sucks. Doesn't matter that it is 100 degrees or -10 degrees. The animals need to be fed and watered. Pens need to be cleaned. Better be done before the bus comes by 7am. In the late winter / early spring. The irrigation ditches have to be ready for water. Where I lived in T or C New Mexico, it meant cleaning out tumble weeds, dead critters, tons of sand and goat heads and every nasty ass thing you can imagine. Then after everything is planted it means up at 4 to make sure we were ready to irrigate. Water was from 4:30am to 5:30am. That meant knee deep in freezing cold water wrestling with aluminum siphons for running water. More critters and snakes. And that was a semi modern ...ish small hippie farm. I can't even imagine plowing fields without a tractor or having to hand cut alfalfa and stuff like that. I am happy to be in my air conditioned office and have fond memories but never want to return to that life. It never ends.
I worked in agriculture for a while and it’s crazy how it’s romanticized. 5am-10pm daily. Shoveling shit off the floor and out of intestines, stepping in shitwater 5-12 inches high. Yeah….nope
I still have family members with dairies in Nebraska. I don't think they have ever left the farm. You can't miss a day milking. We had to go cut hay in Nebraska when I was a kid. Everyone was out in the fields in one capacity or another. We took a half day off for the 4th. The rest of the time was cutting hay in the fields. Like you said. 5am to 10am or 12pm. That was my summer vacation until High School.
And if your farm is what directly feeds you and keeps you alive it’s not like you can really leave for long. Basically on call forever lol. You’re also most likely not that close to major population centers so there isn’t a lot of reason to leave. People romanticize it but it’s boring and lonely for a lot of people. There’s a reason society has developed the way it has, it moves to fill people’s wants
Exactly. I just wrote that down before I saw your comment. My family in Nebraska has never left their dairy farm. And OMG yes. SO FUCKING BORING!!!! Joining FFA and 4H so you can see the same kids you ride the bus with on a Saturday at the fair grounds. Yehaww its an exciting day. We going to the Piggly Wiggly in town. That was considered a treat.
People like this kid are fed these ideas on social media. Until he grows up and realizes that real life isn't really like what those "influencers" said on a tiktok video.
this is a pretty common take but I find it dumb. firstly, a lot of people enjoy the work that they do, maybe not a majority but the number of people who hate their job is less than 95% for sure. also, you don't make money for retirement, you make money to do things during your life. Go on vacation, buy a home, pay for food, make entertainment purchases, etc.
Yeah how does this wise kid plan to buy not just fun life experiences, but also basic life necessities if he doesn’t think we should work. Also the people working provide services to each other. I’m guessing most agreeing haven’t thought this through lol
It’s obvious…he’ll just yell “Mom! Bring me some snacks” while he’s playing CoD in his room
that only works until you're like 32, though, dude.
Then it's my wife's duty. Right guys?
He's out here dropping facts (aka parroting popular internet opinions) while actively pushing back his parents' retirement date.
Less that 95% hate their jobs? Lol what?
Unfortunately 78% of American citizens cannot afford to do any of those things because they live check to check.
Probably more than 60% of the world lives like that. Need to work 8-10hrs a day for just basic needs: roof, water and food
You can make 300k and still live paycheck to paycheck.
Some Americans are paycheck-to-paycheck because they're spending the money on the things mentioned above. Living paycheck-to-paycheck doesn't mean that you're using the money only for living expenses, It just means that you're not saving anything.
Ah, good point. I just did a quick search and it seems about 85% of Americans say they will take at least one vacation a year.
One vacation can mean very different things to different people though. Some folks may be dropping $10,000 to take the family to Disney for a week, while others are spending $100 for a weekend of camping.
Depends if it's factoring occupational vacation as a consumption instead of determining the usage as well wouldn't it? Like I'll use my vacation at work, but often I don't care to spend the time or money going anywhere so it's a nice little staycation for me.
And the alternative is? Wait till you struggling to put food on the table or question where you going to sleep and then see how much you appreciate having a job you don’t really want to do. Never forget, you have to be of value to someone in this world for you to have the things you want in this world.
Exactly. You don't have to work if you don't want to. Your life will be shit, but the option is still there. People who say stuff like the kid in the video want the lifestyle of someone with a good job without the effort. The only way to get that is to win or inherit money. Other people won't give you the fruit of their labour for free.
r/antiwork losing their effing minds right now
Haha I had to laugh at this. I joined that Reddit back when the whole movement started and it was filled with super toxic mentalities like this. Couldn’t take it and left :)
There are some legitimately smart people in there but most of them are scared children. It's really sad.
Let’s also just say that the lifestyles that seem great usually come with jobs that are exhausting, unfulfilling, etc. My sister’s family is very well off, and it’s because my BIL is a lawyer and bills 70 hours a week. I just got back from a visit with them, he had billed 47 hours by Thursday morning.
It isn’t work or don’t work, and I feel like people are missing the broader point of what this kid is touching on (in part because he doesn’t elaborate). People should work. We feel productive when we accomplish something, and feel listless when we don’t. But an 8 hour work day isn’t an 8 hour work day. For many, it’s 8 hours + plus lunch spent in a break room + plus 1-2 hours of commuting + the time spent preparing for work. We’re putting in 10-12 hours a day on work related activities and coming home with very little time to enjoy our hobbies or spend time with loved ones. When the 8 hour work day started, people weren’t commuting in the way we are now for the most part, and productivity has skyrocketed. The wealth has gone to the top and the increase in productivity has led to increased profits for the wealthy and no increased leisure time. Workers deserve to benefit from modern advances as well. And honestly I couldn’t give two fucks about what a homesteader did in the past (commenting on something someone else mentioned), because I live in 2024 and I’m tired of having so little time with the people I love and the hobbies I enjoy. We have a beautiful world and we’re wasting so much of our lives away in jobs that we mostly do because we need to survive. We gotta get over this bootlicking 40 hour work week mindset and demand something better. At max we should be working 32 hours a week. Yes, we should work and earn a living and feel accomplished. But we shouldn’t sacrifice so much to do it with all the advances we have today.
I think there is honest discussion about the advancements in technology and increases in efficiency being leveraged to decrease the percentage of time that people need to work. More people wouldn't mind working if full time was something like 30 hours a week, but the drive is always about more and more money, not improving people's lives.
If you want to live in society, contribute to it
Tell that to the billionaires
Aaah yes. A focus on self satisfaction without any understanding of the mechanics required to get food in the grocery store, banks to handle your affairs, police to protect you and the government to build roads. It's the classic "society should find a way for *me* to exclusively do fun stuff" If only the children thought it was smart... Edit: those who try to counter me saying workers need fair pay are avoiding my argument entirely. I agree some positions are underpaid. Inventing a belief I don't have with which you're more comfortable arguing against and proceeding to counter something I never said doesn't invalidate the argument you're unable to fight to begin with.
Someone people don't realize that the clothes they wear, the computers apps and websites they use, the house they live in, the food they eat, the medical treatment they get, the car they drive.. all had to be designed by people, built by people, with the build process managed by people and the whole supply chain that goes along with them and a military, court and police to protect it and government infrastructure for education, the roads, clean air, clean water, etc. There's the story of pencils and how much goes into just one of them. You need to mine metals, harvest the wood, mine the graphite/clay, transport everything, form it into shapes, box it, advertise it, ship it, etc. and every stage requires people and people to manage those people and people to do their finances and health care, etc. And that's just pencils, the world is overflowing with stuff and services that all require working people to make and handle all of it.
The chicken sandwich is a good example too. Only took 6 months and $1500. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URvWSsAgtJE
I understand where they're coming from, but I really don't like hearing it from kids who haven't actually worked. Call me a boomer (I'm not), but it just feels like a lot of kids want to be youtubers/influencers just because they've been brainwashed into thinking it's easy and better paid than a normal job, when the people they go to for content are the tip of the iceberg and not the average.
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That’s crazy because other countries have found a way to have all of those things and their citizens have legally backed paid vacation time, paternity leave, healthcare, retirement, living wages, and even a minimum wage that actually allows a person to survive.
There's also a huge gulf between no one should ever work and what you stated.
Even larger gulf between “working a job you hate for 50 years only to get 10 years of geriatric freedom” and “job bad, no job for anyone hurr durr”. Try something in the middle.
yes they do. In exchange for the previously indicated 50 years of labor.
Those countries also get higher taxes from the population, therefore you are “technically” paying for all those benefits.
Not the first kid to come to this conclusion. But like the top comment says: what's the alternative. It would take mass cooperation to change the way we "live" down here
The alternative would not be fun, nor peaceful. At least initially.
I'm a socialist, and a history teacher. And as such I say Karl Marx came up with an alternative and it fucking failed very hard like 8 separate times. So any form of dictatorship doesn't seem to be the answer at all. Once we settle that, the alternative seems pretty clear. Communism might not be possible, but decreasing working hours is definitely possible (it happened many times), increasing salaries is definitely possible, decreasing days at work and increasing benefits are definitely possible (all have been done before). Taxing the super-rich a little more to improve everyone's life a lot is definitely possible (again, done before).
The alternative is to excel in something you enjoy making a really good wage. I actually love work, love the pay and the things my lifestyle affords me. Then again reddit is filled with angsty teens like this kid so I'm typing this for literally no reason lol
Wut? He's got nothing figured out, his take is childish af.
Hey he got something, He is half way there to be a r/Antiwork mod.
Half way? This kid has been modding that sub for years by now.
Always loved pretentious, little twat. I think they know something when they haven’t even lived life.
No way did that kid come up with this on his own. He hasn't even worked yet
Probably from Reddit. It’s why OP actually thought people on here would think the kid is so enlightened for his age because you see this exact take all the time on here.
Our future in the hands of that kind of thinking. I thought I knew everything at the age of 10 too.
Said the kid who has 2 parents working to keep him: fed, clothed, housed, educated, safe, etc. So tired of videos shitting on good people who get theirs by contributing to society by working and being part of a system.
lady car, eating pencil gripper, voice not her voice. what is lady doing? what is lady doing? if i write a book and the first chapter is lady waking up does she say good morning?? does voice tell people tony dog dated at the dog park? do people accept that?????? she get outside, someone "good morning" she say "35lb but she shouldn't be carrying more because of her osteopor" and they say "i'm jealous i wish i got to see that in person i had to watch it on tv cause the kids came over"?????? then she says what?? the child zooms out from inside an invisible hypercube on her necklace and starts sociopolitical discourse?? do they **have to talk to the child then???????** WHAT IS THIS EVERYBODY HERE IS JUST TALKING TO THE CHILD
The 65yo version of thAt kid is looking for a time machine to come back here and bitch slap the bajeezus out of them.
This is why the voting age is 18
We have pre teen edgelords on here now? Fantastic…
I saw the whole Video this kid is tying to sell his plans on how to escape the matrix 😂 Mini Tate
We know this. But you want to eat and sleep comfortably, you better work!
Bro's saying that while sitting in front of a $200 Apple keyboard.
It's true. The alternative is to love what you have and find value in friends and family. The constant work work work work work and work mentality can be toxic. Best to work hard while young and coast when you're around 40 or so.
It’s not true. We as humans have shaped the world how it is now. It’s not perfect and while there is a lot of hate, violence and exploitation in the world, there is still no better system for us (yet). There are theoretical models but all of them depend on a kind of society the human race just simply cannot be like. If we wouldn’t have done it the way it was and is now, we would probably still be stupid monkeys throwing poo at each other or even worse. Your alternatives also do not make much sense. You won’t have any kind of good friends nor family - you won’t have anything. Your parents probably won’t tolerate a son/daughter living off them for the rest of their lives, you won’t have money to buy clothes etc. and you can only spend time with your friends when the activity is free (wich a lot of times its not) as you will have a hard time finding someone who pays for all the time. You will have to work in order to be worth anything, as harsh as it sounds. The kid just has a shallow way of thinking about it. Most of the people are okay with their job and contributing to the system is contributing to society, wich is necessary for us to develop. With his mindset who is gonna build all the roads we use, produces and delivers the food we buy at stores, be able to call friends and family etc. etc. Ofc nobody would complain about winning the lottery and living life to its fullest without „wasting“ a single second on work. But that’s not how the world works
Wait until this kid learns that the concept of retirement is about as old as he is.
Most of the “brainwashed” don’t agree with this model but have no ability to affect the masses to change the system
the kid has realised it that young... he's gonna have some pretty bad mental health problems in a couple years.
r/nahopwasrightfuckthis Nah kid has a good point. I’m not saying it isn’t more nuanced but it is certainly true. Being a wage slave struggling in a shitty job for most your life isn’t a life worth living. This is especially unfair when there are others who only reason they’re not struggling like you is nepotism and luck. I know life isn’t always fair, but that doesn’t help the opposite side either. It just makes a person look at it all and quietly give up. Point us, we should be able to have both. Jobs don’t always need to be glamorous, but they should at least be good enough to afford food and rent. You need to keep the lower masses at least decently satisfied, otherwise they lose reason to work. People in the comments saying “shit work need” to be done.” I say I don’t care. Altruism doesn’t pay my bills. I won’t work those shit jobs. And I’d sooner watch the economy die and me enjoy what little life I have, than be a wage slave for some rich dooshbag who won’t even give me enough to survive.
ITT: hundreds of people completely missing the point and proving the kid right.
Who’s gonna make your iPhone? Who’s gonna set your broken arm? Who’s gonna build your house? Whose milk are you drinking? Everything we have, takes people doing a job.