Nah, listen, things can change. This may become a public transport commute, a walk, or you may not even go at all if you work from home. But what really sucks is when you are unemployed, and yes I speak from experience on all of these examples
True. Most of us are just working to buy our financial independence. Having my own business is even more challenging.
I’ve been trying for more than a decade and still poor (doing better than before but still poor), but that’s still the plan for me.
I’ve been unemployed for two week and it doesn’t suck. I can do what I want when I want. What really sucks is eventually being broke after running out of money.
I’ve had two multi-month stretches of unemployment since the start of covid, and before that I was employed for 15+ years straight.
The “not working” part never got old. I am a chill person and a homebody so it was wonderful sometimes.
The part about not earning money, yeah that sucked. Living below our means for years made sure that the financial side wasn’t life-shattering, but it was still a huge hit.
Maybe it’s because I lucked into a career that I can be content in but I would rather be employed than unemployed even if I was able to sustain myself through my unemployment. I’m happier if I have a job from which I can derive a sense of purpose and duty. If I was a multimillionaire, I would probably either volunteer or still be working.
Well, working for someone else and working for yourself is different i guess. Drawing cool characters and manga for myself than working for some company making garbage for social media. I don’t consider that 'work 'cuz I love it and have fun. It’s more of a playtime for me. I’m just saying I’d rather be doing that than making ads or editing corporate videos with that jarring background music all day.
I literally work in tech configuring and troubleshooting servers all day. I wouldn’t really call it fun but it is fulfilling.
I bet you’ve been doing it less than 5 years? Give it time, you’ll see past the fulfilling part eventually.
I’ve been doing it for 12…
I assume different people have different needs, but I feel so much more content with life when I get up early and drive my bike to work/Uni. Having some structure forced onto me is just way easier than living from day to day. But I have also struggled with depression in the past, I may require it more than others do.
People that really enjoy being unemployed might have only had jobs that didn’t feel fulfilling or were degrading, annoying or whatever. I used to feel great without work, between jobs because I worked shitty places. Now I have a job doing more useful work with a better environment and it feels nice to be there.
I agree with the depression also, it’s easy for me to procrastinate and be unproductive and live more slovenly, but when I am working more it does force me into a bit better of a routine.
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It’s fun for the first few months. Catch up on games movies etc. Gets boring after a few months, most people need goals in life and find it hard to set them for themselves…
And what goals would I be getting done making advertisements to feed on people’s time? I felt like a zombie when I was working. I do understand that if you get a job you really love doing and don’t feel like what you’re putting in your time in isn’t pointless. But that kind of job is very hard to find, and you definitely can set goals for yourself. Opensource projects are a good example of that. Mangas, indie games, etc. You just need enough drugs to make it work.
“You just need enough drugs to make it work”
You figured out the name of my memoir!
Yeah I like my public transit commute with walk. Gives me a good 10 minute meditation time in the morning. Sure, I’d prefer to not have to go in, but it’s nice that it’s free for me to do that since the company has the unlimited pass.
Try forty or fifty years, unless you got your first job at 40. Unless you’re a boomer, you aren’t even getting full social security until 67 and unless you saved like a motherfucker you probably won’t retire till your 70s.
I didn’t expect the UnspecificGravity to be so strong… But damn did that hurt.
I would be more upset that we have to eat for the next 30-40 years… work is just the symptom of this fact. To get food you have to either produce it or barter it for some other service.
Eating is a fundamental physiological need. Making money from selling food isn’t. We have the means to feed everyone but it’s nor profitable. The ecomomy is a human fabrication.
Forget the evil economy. Why would anyone producing food give it to you for free while you sit on your ass all day and they worked hard to produce it, even if they have enough?
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Great Teacher Onizuka
One of the best manga of all time
“The Customer orders the food, you cook the food, and the customer gets the food. We do that for 40 years and then we die.” - Squidward.
I don’t get it. You do the same job for 40 years? Or is the issue having something to do for 40 years? I would be so bored without a job - actually I still get bored with a job and can’t imagine what I would do with even less on my plate.
We don’t need a paid job to in order to work and be productive. We can volunteer to make a better society or do something creative. We need to stop making the equivalence between free time=mindless media consumption. Also, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs
The problem is we need the job money and getting it leaves us so exhausted we restore to lay down and watch a screen. But this is a situation created by the job-centric culture, not solved by it.
Yeah bud I am a specialty nurse for disabled pediatrics, I don’t have a bullshit job. Maybe what you said applies to someone else.
Not all jobs are bullshit of course. Yours is much needed. But that was just an example for of the argument, the core remains. Job-centric culture and chronic exhaustion is a social issue regardless of your personal experience.
Maybe I said what I said a little too defensively. I don’t want to downplay the quality of what you might have to say on the topic, however, I feel like the r/antiwork dog walkers are upset with me for liking work. I may not be in the most receptive of places at the moment.
I get that, I used to work with an old timer +65 and their job made them feel useful. They told me that otherwise they’d be drinking beers and cruising on demand media. I hope he’s still out there doing exactly that. Personally I’d rather be murdered than work until I’m dead.
Covid quarantines and stuff were so boring that everything I normally enjoyed became boring also. I learned that if I don’t have something to break up time between leisure activities I’ll get tired of them. I work, and it isn’t the pinnacle of existence, but what I like to do when I am not working feels better or atleast stays as good.
I don’t know, with the huge backlog that I have regarding videogames, movies, TV shows, Anime, podcasts, mangas, comics and books I think I’d be pretty busy without the need of a work, doing one activity at once is tiring ofc, no matter how fun it is but having lots of hobbies helps (and those are the “quarantine friendly hobbies”).
Yeah I really can’t do purposeless living. I would get depressed in like a week. The content of my work gives me purpose. Those are great hobbies, I enguage with many of them, but none of them would be fulfilling without a purpose beyond them.
So you have no hobbies at all? You exist to labor for others, eh? Well, if it works for you I will reserve my judgement.
What? I literally did not say anything about a lack of hobbies. Well, if jumping to conclusions works for you I’ll reserve my judgement.
Nah, check out:
See also this motivational blog post that happens to lie at the intersection of the two.
TL;DR: change your lifestyle to (among other things) not need a car, then use the savings to retire early.
Well, you don’t have to. If you want to just save enough to buy some land you could work for just a few years then homestead from there.
Imagine not working from home
As a teacher, I would rather die than ever teach a class over zoom or teams ever again.
As an adult who had to sit with a first grader to make sure they stayed in their zoom classes, I couldn’t agree more. I don’t hold a grudge against her teacher, we were all doing our best. It was just impossible to keep a first grader focused on her laptop for more than 20 min at best.
You just see what would happen in class. Now imagine having 20 of them.
As a student, I agree.
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I wish I could cut grass from home.
In all seriousness, some jobs cannot be done remotely. Schools are a prime example of this. That should mean that those jobs should cover expenses for travel and have some sort of tax for offsetting their carbon footprint.
Working from home is so beautiful to me. I can work from my living place, and don’t need to see faces of everyone (most of the time)
Something like 75 percent of all jobs in the US aren’t able to be done remotely, according to a study by researchers at UW.
As someone that used to be a blue collar worker but now is a software developer, people like us REALLY need a reality check. Working from home is a privilege that most people will never experience, and I am forever grateful for having the opportunity.
How did you get into this ? I’m currently working as a plumber and have been thinking of getting into software development or some IT job so I have more time to be home with my family. Do you have any tips ?
Where are you located? Personally I am located in Sweden and have some tips and tricks here, but my knowledge is limited outside here sadly. Personally, I applied to a coding bootcamp and worked my way up because I knew for certain that I wanted to become a developer, and didn’t want to mess with the “other stuff” that a university program implies. I had some very limited previous experience with coding. Most countries usually have something more “job specific” and shorter than a uni program, and in that case I would recommend something like that!
Most important of all: Please just DO IT. I worked as a lathe mechanic for years longer than I should have. I was just scared of change. Now, I am happy every single day to go to work, because I remember how hard my life used to be. Take my advice and don’t be afraid, if you feel like a job in IT would fit you better!
30 would be nice, it’s more like 50
Lol, joke’s on you! With these meager wages, paltry living conditions, and body-destroying hours and tasks, I probably won’t even survive 30 years of this! You don’t have to save or invest for retirement if you expect to be dead before then 🫠
Man, it seems if Putin dies(or goes to prosin) and Russia will say “free visas and transport to get here”, it will get tons of cheap qualified labour.
That’s why I moved less than 5 miles away from work.
But then one day, after 30 or 40 years of hard work, you’ll realize that you’ve done a lot of hard work.
Someone is optimistic about the future of society.
Nah, someone is optimistic about the future of capitalism. Hopefully bunker rat will die or go to prison in next 3-10 years. And his oligarchs too.
Imagine having no good public transport
Unless the reason travel by car takes really long is because of traffic jams, it’s actually rather hard to create public transit that actually wins out in time. Bus will be a lot slower, trains can only take you to so many places, and building a large metro system is prohibitively expensive.
I would like to use public transit, but when that would turn a 15 minute drive into a 55 minute trip, I’d rather not spend 27 hours a month extra going to work.
I would like to use public transit, but when that would turn a 15 minute drive into a 55 minute trip
I wonder whose friend got multimillion contracts for building 6-lane(per direction) “roads”…
This is 15 minutes of work vs 55 minutes of relaxation.
Either you have a really bizarre definition of relaxation or you’ve never taken public transport in a busy city during peak hours.
Even in Los Angeles, where public transport is barely used, everything is packed at peak times. And that’s a place where people regularly take showers. I dare you to enjoy the relaxing experience of a bus at peak times in August in a third world country like Russia.
Like everything these days, it depends. I live in Seoul, where the density is arguably too high. If you get on the line 2 train, which encircles Gangnam and the business and tourist districts, you’re gonna be a sardine. If you hop on line 3 far enough east, it’s totally chill during rush hour in August. Literally. Air conditioning. Wifi and cell signal. It’s luxurious compared to LA.
I think it’s just a matter of city planning. In Seoul’s case, I think they didn’t properly account for population growth and how much the inner-circle areas would boom. Outside of line 2 and some key transfer stations, public transit here absolutely is relaxing. I brag to my friends in the states about it all the time
Either you have a really bizarre definition of relaxation
You replied to comment that I made while I was in public transport. If I were driving, I whould not be able to write it.
you’ve never taken public transport in a busy city during peak hours.
Does 17:00-19:00 peak hours count?
I dare you to enjoy the relaxing experience of a bus at peak times in August in a third world country like Russia.
Ok?.. How do you know what I did in August?
I know there is saying that Moscow is not Russia, but I did exactly that. Also during summer most of regular people are on vacations, so there will be more space than during winter.
I live in Seoul, which has superb public transit. It can work if designed well.
Busses have their own lanes to ensure traffic minimally affects them. Bus-train transfers are well managed. High density means that mass transit ends up being faster due to traffic concerns. Speed limits are quite low, which also makes vehicle accidents less lethal.
As for prohibitively expensive, that’s only if you don’t sufficiently tax your corporations ;)
So basically, vote for local and national government that will create an environment where public transit works
Bus or car to work takes at least 40 minutes. When there’s a morning and evening rush, the bus wins easily because it has dedicated lanes and can go where cars are not allowed. Biking takes me 20 minutes no matter the time of day - even when it snows and it is black ice
But you can do things while on the train like sleep or internet. It depends what that tradeoff is exactly, but I would still rather have a longer commute I can do things during.
I would rather sleep for an extra 40 minutes then have to get up 40 minutes earlier.
Like get robbed, stabbed, harassed, inconvenienced, annoyed and assaulted?
Tradeoffs indeed.
Where do you live?
Chicken and egg problem. Crime highly correlates with poverty. People perceive transit as being a poor people thing because it’s cheap. Only poor people take transit. You get the gist.
Also, the incidence rate is probably lower than people’s perception. I lived in San Francisco for about 3 years and only experienced one incident while taking transit everyday. Of course, transit doesn’t have the problem mentioned above, so maybe it’s not the best example.
I tried taking transit a couple of times in LA and in my hometown in a suburb in Florida. Transit is underutilized in these places (read as, people see it as a poor person thing). It was surprisingly… uninteresting. It was just getting from A-to-B. People mostly just sat on their phones or stared out the window or chatted. Was quite nice.
So maybe grab a friend or two for safety, since you’re concerned about that, and give it a shot. I think you’ll be surprised.
But if you’re in LA or New York, the trains are super dirty. So uh, i recommend not one of those. No idea where you’re located
(Edit: I’m assuming you’re in the US because that kind of opinion is quite common there.)
How much more likely are you to die in a car accident in a bus or train versus a car? How many times have you taken public transit that you have such a problem with the issues you mentioned?
Still much safer than roads with all the crashes.
If we’re talking in terms of comfort my own car wins hands down?
Yeah these people think getting screamed at and not being able to use earbuds for fear of some maniac sitting behind you is some sort of virtuous affair that should be experienced by all.
It’s not Europe, so fuck off with that shit.
You only have to do that the next 30-40 years of your life if you live the next 30-40 years… just saying.
It could be worse, you could have to work the next 60 years.
Hey, what can you say? We were overdue But it’ll be over soon You wait
Hey, what can you say? We were overdue But it’ll be over soon Just wait Ba-da-da, ba-da-da, ba-da-da-da-da-da-da
