For me, that equation and the breaking point was reading “Your money or your life“. I had a good job. I was well paid, I liked my colleagues, and really had no reason to complain. But I was also terribly unhappy. I had anxiety about going work everyday, frequently hoping something would happen on the way which would excuse my not wanting to go. (think, getting hit by a car…again) Work, which was supposed to be getting me something, was costing me something as well.
It got me thinking about why we work and what we want. The current capitalist system works on dissatisfaction and desire. Advertisements show you what you should want, they tell you why shouldn’t be satisfied with that you have. Which means you need to make money to get it.
And that’s the rub. No one wants to be homeless. No one wants to go hungry. Those are pretty basic on the hierarchy of needs. So if your basic needs are met, what next? What would you be willing to give up on, if it meant you didn’t need work 8 hours a day but maybe only 4? Would you give up eating out? Live in a smaller home? Drive an older car? For everyone it is different.
There are lots of websites out there that will tell you how to retire young and countless articles on people lucky enough to stop working early. Most claim to be self-made but in reality had some seed planted which made it possible. All will include money saving tips, and other advice like that.
No one will tell you this, but “be lucky”. I got very lucky. My in-laws lent us the seed money to get into the housing market in a city whose housing market was exploding. We parleyed that into two properties. We got lucky that we had good tenants to help pay the mortgage. We got lucky that I had good jobs that included extended medical in a country that has universal health care. We got lucky a number of times.
If you can’t be very lucky, support universal basic income. As well as increased taxes on the ultra-wealthy to pay for it. The richest 8 people in the world should not control 50% of the world’s wealth. That is just obscene. The belief that someone should have the right to accumulate that much wealth is at the heart of capitalism and why the system is so rotten.
Not one of these men is “self-made”. All of them have exploited the labour, talent and intelligence of others. All of them have manipulated the system into reinforcing the idea that they deserve so much. Which is why the myth of employment must be perpetuated if the capitalism system is to remain.
Yes, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have decided to give away their billions of dollars, but we should not need to rely on the charity of billionaires. What if, instead we didn’t allow billionaires to exist? What if we said after 100 million, you’re done. You can keep working if you like, but you can’t get any wealthier. You’ve maxed out.
