I'm middle class and I'm terrified of the antiwork movement

Why are you so terrified? Buckle up and be a man.

hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, weak men create hard times.

Scared that you won't be able to scam your way out of the middle class by exploiting the work of others?

Define the "anti-work movement." We have an unemployment rate of 3.6% right now. That is BELOW what is commonly considered full employment of 5%. I'm actually surprised that 96.4% of people looking for work can actually get hired.

If you have friends who are physically and mentally able to get a job and they don't, then HOW are they doing that? Only options I see:

1) Independently wealthy. If so, then more power to them. They can do with that wealth what they want.

2) Freeloaders. Someone is enabling them. Bad enablers, bad!

3) Homeless. Well, that's not good and throws up the possibility that they are not mentally able to get a job.

4) Criminals. There have been cases where people have lived in the woods or in a tent or whatever and stole what they needed for years.

Contrary to popular current opinion, people don't just decide to not work just because they don't want to. They either have funds you don't know about or they are freeloaders or homeless or criminals.

Found the Marxist. You guys have killed millions and millions of people. All because of petty entitlement and envy. Sickening.

Wages have been falling behind productivity and cost of living for decades. An ever-increasing % of workers cannot afford things that were once attainable (kids, college, home ownership, vacations). Inflexible expenses (food, housing, transportation) are harder to buy and take up more of their wages.

Is this due to worse technology, smaller markets, lower incomes for companies, higher business taxes? No. It's just wages intentionally flattening to increase corporate profits in all industries.

The anti-work "movement" is the logical result of that trend. People are fed up that jobs don't even give you the life you could have gotten in the f*cking 70s, and the only reason is the naked greed of generationally wealthy investors siphoning the lion's share of income from every industry AND getting tax breaks AND getting bailouts.

So is this “anti work” movement the latest imaginary bogeyman from Faux News?

OP's blood pressure up 30 points over a freaking subreddit. Huffing fox-news rage bait.

There are people who realize they can get by on a lot less money if they don’t buy unnecessary stuff so share housing, eat rice beans and live on $6-800/month. Better than a job that wants to pay minimum wages and you spend over half your income just getting to work and back. Work when where you are treated/compensated fairly save a few grand and if a company tries to take advantage just say nope and get by on minimal savings.

Yes many work slaves are insecure about anti work people because misery loves company. When most people ask me if i work, I certainly am not obligated to dignify their nosiness with a response. And then if they know, they feel i owe them an explanation why. Because I have money. Why do people work? To have enough money for something. So if you have enough money, why work? Makes no sense. You're not obligated to subvert yourself to the modern day slave class if you're unhappy that way. Sheesh.

That is temporary. $600-800 a month is still money. Where is it coming from? If it is money that they saved up, then that falls under #1 of my list...for the time being, independently wealthy (or at least independently capable of not working for a while). This situation is actually quite rare. Anyone who is willing to share housing probably never made much money and therefore doesn't have a lot of money saved to do this for long without working. It is simply not the case that there are a whole bunch of people just deciding not to work because companies won't pay them enough.

How is believing that other people have a right to my money entitled? What are you smoking brother?

Many wealthy people that have more money than they can ever spend still work, because they like to stay moving and being productive.

And some people who are not with means left their jobs to find other fulfillment.

It’s not as simple as people work if and only if they need money.

If Howe is correct the fourth Turning is upon us and there are indeed some hard times coming.

Red team, I can’t imagine what you’ve seen or where you’ve been but you’re really missing out. I worked my butt off starting in the mid 1960s until 4 years ago when I retired in good financial standing. Those “attainable” items you mention were not easier to attain “in the f*cking 70s” like you might think. Through those 55 years we had some rough patches but in the long run I can’t say that it became any harder to attain those items for me or those around me. And in the last 20 or so years it included a large number of the day’s young with whom I had the pleasure of working. Oh and today, the house they attain today is easily twice the size we had to start with and the cars they have are much nicer. The middle class including myself is doing and can do very well....if they choose to do so. Oh I did “choose” to become one of those investors but unfortunately didn’t quite make it as one of those wealthy one.

Red Team I’m sure for every doom and gloom story you have I could give you 4 or 5 positives. Come on down to Houston, Austin, San Antonio, or Dallas. Long term things have been good for at least my 60 years down here. Not perfect but good.

Most boomer post ever congrats:

“I made $7 an hour during college in 1958, and paid my college tuition. Kids these days have a $7.25 minimum wage! That extra quarter could buy them 4 coca colas and a comfortable ride on the whites only bus!”

Okay boomer,

$7 in 1958 is worth $68.72 today according to the inflation calculator.

in2013dollars.com

Inflation Rate between 1958-2022 | Inflation Calculator

$7 in 1958 is now equivalent to $71.89 in 2022.

Open link

I couldn't care less whether the guys around me want to work 80 hours or zero hours. What scares me is the ever rising cost of living. Friends with great jobs looking to start a family and settle down but can't move out of mom and pops because of scarcity in the housing market.

what is the antiwork movement?