Why I should never retire: because I'll starve on the street. Unfortunately I'm getting old enough that no one is going to want to employ me. So I guess I'll starve on the street and serve as an incentive to others to work harder for the man.
I think its good to keep working, but only doing the things that you actually enjoy or have value outside of a paycheck. When I "retired" I found it kind of hollow and it was not all it was supposed to be.
18 year old DM to the group: "Alright, let's all plan to meet up this time next week + 50 years. We should have the campaign wrapped in another session or two. Hopefully John can make it"
I have my hip replacement this week and next week the grandkids are in town. Week after that I have a bad fall scheduled. After that I should be free, might be dead idk.
My father lasted a year in retirement, after which he got so bored he went back to his last job as a "consultant" to his successor, effectively continuing what he had been doing in the previous ten or so years, except only visiting the office when he felt like it.
I don't recall him ever enjoying this job at all, but it seems sitting around with a sole purpose of waiting to die is even less fun
I have so many things I'd like to do, except I'm so tired after work and the things I need to do to maintain my life that aren't called work for some strange reason. Provided I have the money to retire and afford the things I want to do, I will have plenty to keep myself busy for another lifetime.
If you can't find ways to keep busy in your retirement, that's on you. If you would rather spend that time working, that's fine, too, but society shouldn't expect that of us. If you can't afford to, that's a separate problem, and partly due to society, too.
There are a lot of bits of my job enjoy, when I retire I shall just putter about and spend some time doing those bits and get paid less money for doing it
Cruises and golf? What a shallow, sad view of retirement. My uncle goes to Florida in the winter and fishes off of various docks and camps, and spends time with his grandkids, and ducks around with gadgets the rest of the year.
When I worked at a bank I went to a work-sponsored golf outing and it was both way more fun and required way more physical effort than I was anticipating. I'm not going to go out of my way to go golfing again but I certainly won't turn down an invite if I'm ever invited golfing again
What portion of the population do you think finds their job more fulfilling than the specific activities listed - let alone being able to spend your days as you please.
...ohhhh - "We'll make sure you can't afford to do as you please, let alone survive, so you'll have to work, but making sure the workers are responsible for it means we can keep our bullshit and economic vandalism up."
My father has retired multiple times. Then he keeps going out and finding new jobs like in real estate and making more money. My parents were very stingy with sharing, they spent all their money on random shit and properties that they'd then take a loss on. It's really sad.
Within the confines of the neoliberal-capitalist societies most of us on Lemmy reside in, only the most privileged get to have a fulfilling and well paying occupation. Totally agree with you. My take on the peice is that it's parodying the notion that you have to turn a hobby or unique skill into capital even well past retirement.
I've always believed that people desire an 'occupation', just something to do with your time. Anything a person finds fulfilling to do. I also believe that we've confused occupation with payed work and now the two are perceived as the same. Or maybe I'm nuts.
Gaslighting comes from the movie Gaslight (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslight_(1944_film)). It refers to the practice of lying and manipulating someone into questioning their own recollection of events and general memory in order to cause them to doubt their own sanity, mental faculties, or perception of reality. This is not gaslighting because you are not being lied to about events that have happened. You're being lied to to try and convince you to not do something that you should/would typically want to do for yourself. These are different things.
One of the reasons I decided to leave the US. Yes, the Economist is British but the US has the same problem. I realized chances are I will never save enough for retirement, my 401k planner even says so. So I am moving back to the country that allowed my father to retire in his 50s. 10 years ago when I started working in the US I didn’t expect this outcome, and the longer I stay here the longer it will take me to improve my conditions.
Sorry. It isn’t a country that anyone can just move to. It has many serious flaws and is not pleasant for people from different backgrounds. But it did allow my father to retire in his 50s and my uncles to retire in their 60s. But if you are willing to play along, and keep your thoughts to yourself, you do get a lot for free from education to healthcare and it is affordable to live in, and foreigners do manage to save here. Oh no income tax either.
Just don't confuse wanting to work for having to work.
My grandmother, who had been retired for 30 years, turned her music-writing hobby into a second career after my grandfather passed by taking on artists, getting involved with concerts, etc.
I've met plenty of very old dudes in my hobbies of archery and shooting guns who are absolute masters and charge too little too profit or nothing at all for tuning, gunsmithing, and coaching.
These have nothing to do with keep a roof over your head, and everything to do with staying sane when the expectation seems to be waiting around until you die
Doing nothing for years is a good way to die younger. If you can turn a hobby into a 20hr a week "job" where you pick your hours, that can very easily keep you alive.
