A Boring Dystopia

OH MY FUCKING GOD I THOUGHT THIS WAS A SHITPOST THIS IS A REAL ARTICLE

Bro I’m gonna retire next fucking year YEET THAT CAREER the whole idea of working to make someone else money is DUMB buh bye

Pleasure cruises, golf and tracing the family tree seem like cherry picked bad examples.

Ill be honest, I've seen people (mostly family) that work their ass off to retire and once retiring they basically give up. They don't take care of themselves, exercise or do anything mentally stimulating. Just watching the news and tv then doing the bare minimum to stay alive.

Because of that their health is very poor and they physically cannot do much and honestly seem to live a pretty miserable life.

They also have lots of chronic pain from working so hard that affects them in retirement. My mom worked in a chair for 12 hours, 60 hours a week and has severe chronic pain from sitting. Being out of shape she can't stand for very long and chronic pain means she can't sit very long, she has to spend most of her life in bed.

Personally I believe it's the best to live life now and have a "soft" retirement, reducing days and hours worked as you age. Human biology is made to work (physically and mentally) and the lack of it degrades our bodies and health.

So It's technically "never retiring" but personally I think it's the better option.

Yeah guys, everyone knows that not being sleep deprived, burnt out, and on the verge of mental and/or physical collapse is super boring

I got a taste of early “retirement” thanks to Covid. Being unemployed can be stressful, and having less money is also not great, but god it was amazing.

It hurt my finances a bunch, but it changed something in me for the better, and it changed my perspective on my career. Work is still important to support myself and my family, but it is not part of my identity and self worth.

Going months without my family, pets, and hobbies is simply not an option. But going months without work would be great to do again, if the money were not an issue. And I really like my new position and the company!

The more practical version of that is: fuck long hours, stress, and fighting for a promotion to managing or whatever. I’d get a bit more money but enjoy my life less.

I would never trust a publication that doesn't use the Oxford comma.

I'm going to try to swallow some shotgun shells if I have to see one more article telling me to work until I die.

I'm willing to take that risk.

I propose a counter article:

Why billionaires should not exist: "Mansions, supercars, megayachts and tax avoidance are not that fulfilling"

Lol! I already have fulfilling hobbies and personal projects, and they have clear room for expansion. It's your own fault if employment is the only way you feel anything.

If I get bored of that then I'll just make my own business which doesn't have to be profitable, since it will just be enjoyable and a way to waste my time, rather than work for rich assholes.

I was fortunate enough to get paternity leave and had 9 weeks off. I am not a man with a ton of hobbies. Holy shit guys they have us brainwashed. I never even once felt I had “run out of things to do”. I felt alive in a way I haven’t since childhood. I think our girl is better off for having that time with both of us also.

Everyone should have that opportunity. I think it would allow people to really bond with their kids. Even people who don’t have kids should get it, shit it’s so good to choose what you do every day I still feel refreshed almost 2 years later.

Self-fulfillment is for suckers!

An older article complained that people are retiring too early and becoming a drain on the economy.

One poll this year found that almost one in three Americans say they may never retire. The majority of the nevers said they could not afford to give up a full-time job, especially when inflation was eating into an already measly Social Security cheque. But suppose you are one of the lucky ones who can choose to step aside. Should you do it? ...

But can anything truly replace the framework and buzz of being part of the action? You can have a packed diary devoid of deadlines, meetings and spreadsheets and flourish as a consumer of theatre matinees, art exhibitions and badminton lessons. Hobbies are all well and good for many. But for the extremely driven, they can feel pointless and even slightly embarrassing.

That is because there is depth in being useful. And excitement, even in significantly lower doses than are typical earlier in a career, can act as an anti-ageing serum. Whenever Mr Armani is told to retire and enjoy the fruits of his labour, he replies “absolutely not”. Instead he is clearly energised by being involved in the running of the business day to day, signing off on every design, document and figure.

Who exactly is this article being written for?

Clearly, it's not written towards anyone working the average job. It presupposes that your job must be the most fulfilling and useful thing you could do.

It even calls out tech professionals as retiring early. But how many programmers can't think of a more useful or fulfilling open source project to work on than what they do at their day job?

I feel like I would probably spend much of my time contributing to existing open source code or try making games if I did not have to work for a living. I do like what I am doing but when it becomes the only thing I am doing, its not so great.

People not retiring is actually a huge problem for younger generations. Jobs get locked up on old retirees that should have left the workforce and it becomes a shortage of work for the young professionals trying to get into a full time position.

This is bad advice regardless of how you look at it.

Personally, I won't be retiring. Not because of the shareholders, and not because I have some insane work ethic. Simply put, I can't afford it, and the way things are going, it's entirely possible I never will. Stagnant wages, out of control inflation, shrinkflation, and other inflation-type things.... No ability to save any significant money, etc etc.

The only thing I have going for me is that me and my brother bought a house together, which should be paid off in full by the time I hit 65 or so. If that stays on track, then I won't have rent/mortgage to pay, and the relief that will bring to my finances might be enough for me to retire on the meager income of my social assistance pension.... With inflation the way it is though, I expect that pension will not be enough to pay for everything I need (property taxes, heat, power, etc for the house, plus groceries, car, etc for myself). So I'll be working until they find me dead at my keyboard during lunch break.

I know that headline must be incredibly infuriating for a public like lemmy, * but *, personally I have some conflicts about the whole retirement concept since it starts a chain of cognitive decline and isolation (this is a source but there are many more: https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12877-017-0556-7)

I'm not saying that people should be working forever, I just wonder if there could be some optional way for some elder people to contribute to society in a way that feels meaningful? Are there jobs where they could fit and have that feeling of fulfillment? Understand that I have met a fair amount of old people that felt useless and was just "waiting to die" in a depressive way. In some ways jobs can be a source of happiness if people isn't being exploited. What I'm thinking about would be optional and with less hours involved

On the other hand, maybe what I'm describing is not necessarily a "job position for old people" per se, maybe if we as a society invested more in quality of life for the elder I believe we could make them happier. I feel terrible that we're barely doing anything for the loneliness problem...

Working is great if you're some manager or CEO type. I can see why they'd love to keep working and stealing from labor.

I took one month off on unpaid leave. Not only did it confirm that I didn't miss a thing from my bullshit software dev job, those were 4 busy and productive weeks, with many projects I had left on hold. Plus, I felt much better in terms of health. It allowed me to taper off an SSRI. And I lost weight too!

Software engineer here. There are so many projects that I'd love to contribute to, but can't because my regular job gets me so mentally exhausted and I can only switch context so much. My job is fulfilling, don't get me wrong, but there are so many other projects that are desperately in need of help but can't get any because it's not profitable.

I'm looking forward to the day that I switch to a more relaxing job so I can do some more side projects. I know exactly what my retirement is going to look like. Fuck the economists for telling us what's important and what isn't. They only think about one thing: money. And as long as it makes money, it has purpose in the world. They can't possibly fathom that there are important things in the world that don't fit into their one dimensional economic view of the world. Fuck them so hard!

You will never have my job. It is locked up until I die!

I think they woefully underestimate how fulfilling naps are

Do your part. Die at your desk.

No thanks. Pass. Nice try tho.