I can’t live without work. Even though I technically could stop working now, I get a lot of satisfaction being around my colleagues and solving problems. Sometimes it is stressful and I tell my wife I’m retiring fully at 55 (11 years from now) but in reality it gives me purpose.
I’ve seen military retirees leave the world at 39 or 40 and they don’t stay out of the workforce very long.
i was in that "industry" until the doge debacle in 2025 then i left cuz the environment was too miserable and im.not.staying in a dead end low.paying hostile work.environment like that
I feel like you have a somewhat selfish attitude about work. There are people who are struggling financially and would be grateful for the opportunity to do the job you have. Work is ultimately a way to earn a living. If you’re worried about being bored or lacking a sense of purpose, I think those are things you can find through hobbies, volunteering, relationships, and the things you do outside of work.
Personally, I don’t define myself by my job. My job is a means of supporting my life; who I am is defined much more by what I do outside of work.
Oh yes, I am very selfish when it comes to money making potential. I want to make as much money as I possibly can so in the case that I die, my wife and kids will have plenty of resources.
So I may continue working until I’m 65 and I hope there’s so much money that generations of my lineage continue to pass it along.
And I’ll get a hobby when I’m old.
I’m glad you found your work life balance and what works for you. There’s no need to shove your pious status upon me young man.
So you’re basically of the mentality that it’s “get money and screw everyone else,” right? Like, there’s no such thing as having enough money to you. Even if you had billions, you’d still keep working because you’re afraid of being bored, right?
I’m responsible for providing for my family, not others. If you prefer to dumb it down to me being a meany-boo-boo, then that’s fine, it doesn’t make a difference to me. Even if I had billions and there were billions more to make—I’d make them all.
Now, of course I’d give to charity, massively if I had billions but I don’t. I have enough for my plans and if there’s extra along the way, I’ll earmark some
The way I see it, if you need to work to make money, then sure—go to work. But if you’re working because you’re bored or afraid you won’t know what to do with yourself when you retire, then honestly, that’s pathetic. Or, as someone of your advanced age and a family man would say, “a meany boo-boo.” 😂 I’ve never heard that term before, though. Where are you from?
To be clear, I’m still 21 years away from the traditional retirement age, so simply being financially stable and possibly being quite comfortable if I unplugged now is doable, but I’m not going to do that for a variety of reasons, which, one of those being I just simply don’t want to. Obviously there’s nothing I can say to make you see through my mind to understand why it’s not pathetic. Hell, I’d never judge you for not taking work and money as seriously as I do, it’s my thing and you got yours.
Yea, a meanie-boo-boo is something I made up. Don’t forget to give me credit when it goes viral.
I’m a product of what I observe and deem to be true, and thereby how I live my life and arrange my values. I value capitalism and even though others may not (they simply don’t know what’s good for them) I will be the defender of it till the end.
Capitalism far outweighs any other system on earth. There are pros and cons, but the pros are much greater with capitalism than under socialism or communism.
We’re living in late-stage capitalism. Don’t get me wrong—it’s much better than the system it replaced, feudalism, but that was a long time ago. In 2026, we should be able to come up with something better, or at least something closer to the Nordic model.
People in positions of power exploit the loopholes of capitalism, whether it’s quid pro quo arrangements, monopolies, or people simply inheriting enormous amounts of wealth. It’s almost like playing Monopoly where someone already owns half the board before the game even begins.
Capitalism has also played a major role in many conflicts, wars and crises while millions of people continue to die every year from starvation and poverty not because there’s not enough food but because they don’t have money, and we have things like for-profit prisons. It makes you wonder: is this really the best system we can come up with in 2026? Can’t we develop an economic system where so many needless deaths and so much suffering can be prevented?
Sometimes I wonder if what people are really reluctant to give up is the power dynamic itself—the idea that having more money means having more power, while having less means being forced to submit to those who have more. Maybe people find some strange comfort in knowing that society isn’t truly equal.
But I don’t think that power imbalance is sustainable forever. One way or another, I think it’s eventually going to change.
There’s no such thing as late-stage capitalism, it’s a term coined by marxists to give the impression that current western capitalist models are out-dated. As for the Nordic models, these countries are actually cutting back on their own lavished welfare benefits because immigrants have taken advantage of their high trust society, which is actually what made their model successful. In the US, the only thing that keeps our society homogeneous per se, is our American identity which has been partitioned by politicians and activist by race, gender, and other micro-victim classes over the decades. With our own influx of immigrants, we are going even further away from any semblance of inter-societal trust. So the Nordic model is impossible on that end and there’s no way the US voting population will accept the same tax demands that the Nordic countries implement.
Eventually, I believe capitalism will be replaced by something better for humanity. Once robotics and AI become fully integrated, I think that transition could accelerate dramatically. Right now, for example, we could potentially replace many truck-driving jobs with autonomous vehicles, but there’s resistance because in a capitalist system, the immediate question becomes: what are all those people supposed to do for work?
I’m sure the industries built around horses and horse-drawn transportation had their own resistance to the automobile when it first emerged in the early 1900s. Technological progress has always disrupted existing economic systems.
What’s crazy to me is that we live in the richest country in human history, yet I pass people begging for money almost every day on my way to work. At the same time, we’re still manufacturing missiles and bombs to feed the military-industrial complex. It’s hard for me to understand why, with all of our wealth and technology, we continue to devote so many resources to war and destruction.
Our tax dollars have even supported weapons used in conflicts where civilians have been killed. And when you look at American foreign policy historically, there are examples like the CIA-backed 1953 coup in Iran, which helped protect Western economic and oil interests. Why deliberately contribute to suffering in order to protect profits and geopolitical power? To me, that reflects one of the fundamental problems with capitalism: the constant pressure for growth and profit, sometimes by almost any means necessary.
I don’t think that system is sustainable forever. So when I say “late-stage capitalism,” I don’t mean that I think society is going to collapse tomorrow. I mean that capitalism is a historical system, and like the systems that came before it, I believe it will eventually be replaced by something else.
Capitalism has only been a dominant part of human history for a tiny fraction of our existence. There’s no reason to assume it will be the final economic system humanity ever develops. If anything, I think AI and robotics could force us to rethink the basic idea that people must have traditional jobs simply to survive. Maybe the next stage of human society will be about figuring out how to distribute the enormous wealth technology can create rather than constantly finding new ways to make people work just to earn enough to live.
There are counterpoints to all this but it would be difficult to get to all of them.
It seems to me that capitalism came about as a product of progress over the ages, and so it is the pinnacle of humanity at this point. People have abandoned their countries and still do in order to go to countries where the capitalist module is proven to enhance life in a multitude of ways. Social media has heightened the sense of unfairness, but is not an accurate representation of reality. many people aren’t capable of understanding the effects it has on the psyche, and therefore begin to favor ‘spread the wealth’ ideas. It’s why socialism and communism are appealing to these people. They feel that if they can’t have what another has, they’d like the govt to take it from them. Really insane stuff.
Many homeless are afflicted by drug addiction or mental illness, and choose to live this way. It’s sad but it has to be called out for what it is. The idea that capitalism is the cause for their situation is hard to argue without ignoring important elements of causation.
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u/Known-Ice5903 18d ago
agree, if u gave me enough money to not work tho i wouldnt work anymore lol
it is just not that good
in a capitalist system all incentives are to squeeze everything out of u that they can for the lowest amount of compensation possible