Oh yes, the classic “my job keeps my busy!” While working a fun job, part time and not caring about the money because you are rich…
No one ever truly thinks that all jobs are bad, it’s the system that we are in, that forces us to work all the time while prioritizing practicality over happiness because some of us would literally go hungry otherwise.
Like most things in life, it’s the lack of choice and the pressure to survive, that sucks the life out of most jobs.
2 were self employed, running their own businesses, one was fucking fishing, and one “cuts fabric” part time.
Show me a corporate desk slave that a) lives that long, b) works that long and c) doesn’t resent their entire existence, and I might buy into this obvious fucking farcical corporate propaganda piece.
Fuck you, eat the rich.
(Not you, Op, the author)
If I’m still working at 100 y/o I’ll kill myself at work in front of everyone, fuck it
Do it in a way that they are forced to condemn the building.
No problem, I’m a sick bastard and will come up with something unspeakable
Do a flip!
I’ll do a sick flip bro then say that was for arche7ype and peace out
Depends on the “work”. Is it back breaking farming or is it leeching off the company’s salary while blocking younger workers from getting promoted?
Was hoping someone to mention this… This is the only real take here
Bingo. I don’t know any bricklayer who is like: oh boy i wish i could work even longer.
Corporate propaganda
Not necessarily, as another commenter said they need something “fulfilling” to do with the rest of their lives. After you’ve been working for 50-60+ years, 5 days a week, 8-16 hours a day, and then you suddenly have every day free you don’t know what to do with the time. I’ve been unemployed a few times for a year at a time and after about 3-4 months it starts to get pretty boring.
My uncle lived to 100, he was completely healthy at 98 and would walk a mile or two a day around town, but broke his hip, the recovery process is practically what killed him because he could no longer be active every day. For like 6-9 months he just sat around, he’s muscles and mind atrophied, and the rest of his body started to “fall apart”, and he was never the same. He died about a year later.
I have sooooo many fulfilling projects that I could be doing if I didn’t have to serve capital for food.
It’s a real shame how being used (aka employed) saps people of their individual time, labor, desires, projects, etc.
Stuff costs money and hobbies do get old after a while, but there is a lot of stuff you can do, you just have to be willing to do it.
Probably but I feel there’s some truth to it. If you retire and sit on your ass all day, that is also not good for your health.
My brother and I were both worried about our workaholic father when he was about to retire. He made so many projects for himself (genealogy of our family, writing a book, building a mechanical prototype, etc) that he always said he had not enough time in a day.
Good, you keep doing that!
Well the key was that these people seem to love their jobs. I’m sure if you loved your job you wouldn’t want to stop either.
I don’t know, pal, I’d rather not work at all. I like listening to music and playing videogames.
The concept of retirement for working class people is new (aristocrats retired all throughout time)
- invented in Germany by a priest in 1600s but died out
- independently invented in America when a soldier in the military (late 1700s) had both his arms blown off and a law was passed for him to collect an amount for his (and family’s) maintenance from the neighbors.
Before invention of retirement, the working class had the mentality that you work until you are dead with 99% of the working class in brown collar work. During the industrial revolution where most people transitioned from brown collar to blue collar work, retirement became much more common with social mobility.
During the great depression, USA legislators picked a number “65” to be the “age of retirement” with the reasoning that it would get more young people back to work. The average age of mortality at that time was ~67 years old. They did not index that age with the average age of mortality, so as life expectancy increased, there is now a period in people’s life to be “retired”.
Problems with how this developed:
- social security in the USA is not able to keep paying out at this rate, the age of retirement should be more closely aligned with an “indexed” age whether that is the current average age of mental incompetence or an actuarially determined “you did your time, so you can now get out and your contributions should fund the government support of you”. The political cycle will probably destroy any hard to understand actuarial index, so that leaves us with the first option.
- retired people are a political force (high voter turnout). It is easy to vote to get a raise and ignore issues that would bring actual long term growth when you have a short term mentality. I think that accepting 100% of the cost of your maintenance from the government may be the price of your vote (you cannot vote if you are retired). I am sure that this is another unpopular opinion.
With that perspective, I don’t know if corporations are entitled here, or the people are just doing what their ancestors did for 1,000s of years and are owning it in a positive way.
This is neoliberal lies.
- Live expectancy for people nearing retirement age has not increased much since the 1930s. The main reason life expectancy has gone up is due to childhood mortality going down.
- Life expectancy for blue collar workers has gone up even less, in recent years it is declining. To the extent that people live longer in retirement it’s almost all white collar and wealthier people. Most people I know who work with their bodies are completely exhausted by the time they get to 62.
- Social security is completely financially sound. It is the most sound retirement plan there is because it is not tied to the wall street casino.
- Any projected shortfalls can be eliminated by raising the FICA contribution limit and taxing the wealthy a little more.
