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Comment by bilbo0s | Hacker News Reader

It's also interesting that nowadays when people lose their jobs, it triggers an almost existential crisis in them. It's kind of sad to watch.

I wish people could understand that they are more than their job. It's so ingrained in us though. One of the first things people asks each other is, "What do you do?" It encourages a definition of self that is centered on one's job.

If it weren't real life, I'd think I was watching a dystopian film at most social gatherings. :(

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I'm pretty certain that existential crisis isn't because of who they'd be without their job, except in status obsessed high-income brackets.

For most folks that existential crisis is driven 100% by the realization that they have little in the way of a safety-net, and all it takes is several turns of bad luck to end up in a poverty trap that isn't easy to climb out of. Remember, most Americans make what, 65k or so as a household? And are in massive debt to all of the things they needed to even be able to make that money (college education, car, house, etc).

> For most folks that existential crisis is driven 100% by the realization that they have little in the way of a safety-net, and all it takes is several turns of bad luck to end up in a poverty trap that isn't easy to climb out of.

I think that's more US specific.

High debt loads are a lot more common than most people think. Even those who live in expensive neighborhoods can be one or two missed paychecks away from foreclosure or eviction. Defining yourself as more than your job is a lot easier when you could go six months without it. Not to get too high on my soapbox, but the other side of the fact that low interest rates encourage economic growth is that high debt loads make people desperate to work.

Modern culture has stripped life of intrinsic meaning. The values promoted by the culture are that we are hedonic production/consumption machines, and that our value comes from either what we are able to produce, or what we are able to consume.

Bingo, this hits the nail on the head. We live in a capitalist, market oriented society and we've allowed marketers to run the show by letting them define and influence our sense of self. The eventual outcome of this has been a self-image entirely based on the specific goods and services we consume.

It took a lot of introspection for me to realize that my core essence and sense of self couldn't really be distilled down to much more than what I did for a living and my consumption patterns. It's quite scary and I've been searching for ways to balance myself out and get more meaning out of life.

Cheap and readily available credit makes people dependent on their jobs. Its totally normal to think of affordability on a monthly payment basis. That means we have people who have very little savings after all their monthly payments. When you lose your job you can't make all those monthly payments anymore its a crisis.

I feel you brotha.

he said via a social network

"it triggers an almost existential crisis in them. It's kind of sad to watch."

Said the person (probably) working in an industry that's blooming, without a hint of irony.

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