300 years ago:
Probably die
Work
Die
You should be having fun during the 20 years that you’re studying. And you should be having fun during the 40 years that you’re working.
It’s actually possible to get meaning from what you do as well. May not pay the best in the world, but it’s out there. I was in non-profit administration for many years, and I work for a law school now that helps poor folks, many BIPOC, get degrees so they can better themselves and their communities. Social justice people. I’ve also worked for a private conservative-owned company that only enriched some fuckwads, and I’ll not be doing that again.
Also I run a nonprofit that I founded on the side, and we’re hoping to hire our first staff person this year, I get a lot of meaning from that.
Basically if you work to change the world for the better instead of just slumping through your day, you feel good about your life, even though it’s hard work.
Yes, there’s that, too.
But even if you don’t like your job and don’t find much meaning out of it, it’s still worth trying to find contentment and happiness in other parts of your life.
I’ve had jobs I hated with coworkers I loved. I’ve had jobs I’ve liked in places I hated. I’ve had jobs I mostly hated that I actually appreciate having taught me important skills I still use today (for example, a 3-year stint in restaurants in my 20’s was miserable in a lot of ways, but it helped me stretch a tight grocery budget and fed me plenty of staff meals, and 20+ years later I’m still a great cook).
Jobs don’t define us. For many people, they’re just a small part of us. And we should go on to build fulfilling lives for ourselves across many domains, not just at work.
I had fun in college. My major didn’t define my actual day to day, or my memories of that time. I had fun in high school. I had fun in elementary school too. I don’t remember everything or even everyone, but I know I had a blast at those stages in my life, and most of the fun was had outside of school.
Work is the same way.
Reminds me of that David Bowie lyric…“We live for just these 20 years, do we have to die for 50 more?”.
The meaning of life is listening to groovy basslines on the way to and from work. And hugging your loved ones.
Don’t let anything distract you from that.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is, in fact, the objective truth.
And they are trying to take away the 3rd one, because without that you won’t need things like retirement savings, so they can just take all of that away from you.
Suicide until you’re reincarnated in billionaire family.
You incarnate into a rich family just in time for global economic collapse because of the actions of your family.
“Free”
Both my parents retired. Are they living it up? Are they checking things off their bucket lists? Nope. They’re having emergency surgeries, planned surgeries, going to the doctor all the time, taking a regiment of pills or they die, and hanging around the house because they’re old and their mobillity isn’t great.
A just reward after a lifetime of work.
It’s a scam, friends. You’re going to work until you’re dead or until it doesn’t really matter anymore whether you’re dead or not.
I used to get downvoted to shit for saying things like this, but enjoy and use your youth.
No matter how you treat your body, you do not know what will happen to it. You may be athletic, rarely ill, an extremely healthy eater. You can still end up with a genetic condition you didn’t know about, with a cancer you never fully recover from, losing all of your limbs, losing your bowels or bladder. Dying. All kinds of things.
All of this can happen at any time in your life. Any time. You are not safe from bodily ailment just because you are young and apparently healthy.
Even if nothing happens until you are old and decrepit like a healthy person ought to be, you will still have lost the best years of your life.
Hey, I’m ~40 and this is that I do, too! Plus work.
Same. And take care of aging parents. And kids.
bUt iF yOu SeE yOuR wOrKpLaCe lIkE fAmIlY tHeN yOu nEvEr wOrK a DaY iN yOuR lIfE!
Can this (I hAvE tO mAkE mY pOiNt…) just die already? It was kind of amusing twenty years ago.
iT wAs kiNdA AmuSIng tWeNTy YeARs aGo
0-10 years.
You can die during the first 60 at any time, never making it.
Or never retire due to circumstances outside your control in your working years
40+ years is a long time for shit to go wrong
I’ve watched multiple co-workers not make it to retirement.
Really makes you want to keep doing it.
All the people I know that died did so once they were retired. No thanks, I’m never quitting the work force. You know how many people I know that died from drinking and driving? Zero.
i think about this when looking at the deduction % on my paystub i chose for retirement savings i may never use
At least it will give your children or siblings something to fight over when you die.
only 1 child, so he has it easy, unless i remarry, then it may get spicy
Die before retirement? Well that’s one way to escape wage slavery 😄
Don’t mistake this as me saying this work-til-you-die shit is okay, cause it’s not. But freedom is as much a mindset as it is a material circumstance. There are people who have everything but freedom and there are people who have nothing but freedom.
- depression for 70 years
- die
I recently had to explain to my cystic fibrosis therapist / social worker that the thought of living another thirty years is not a good thing. And she knows that I have other, unrelated and equally bad chronic health issues (genetics matter!).
Fuck’s sake, I don’t want to live to be 70. What a nightmare.
You think you are going to retire for 5-10 years? Cute.
How selfish of you to deny your fortune to be able to contribute to the wealth of the chosen few!
