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Comment by amag | Hacker News Reader

Of course there is no guarantee that your 65-75 years will be good, but it's a lot more likely that your 65-75 years will be good than your 75-85 years.

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The point is, that the society does not owe you 10 years to do whatever.

Which is why he argues it should?

You mean I can't sue society if I die nine years into retirement?

This is how you end up with extremists.

And why wouldn't a society owe its citizens anything after 40+ years of keeping their nose at the grindstone, and obeying all of its laws?

Society is defined by what we owe one another in pursuit of civil interactions with one another.

If the only contract society offers me is "work your hands to the bone and then be discarded once you can't work anymore" then I have no incentive to keep up my side of the contract and perform labor or observe property laws in the first place. And once everyone is trying to cheat and steal from one another then you no longer have a society anymore.

Then you just fall back to a small trusted circle of family and friends. Or, what we used to call a tribe or a clan back then.

Do you consider life not worth living during the time of your life when you're working?

What do you think you get if you don't hold up your side of the bargain? It's not like the state of nature was an early retirement.

Ask that to any serf throughout history. You don't have to "prefer to be dead" in order to recognize that what is being asked of you fails to be worth what you get in return, and then be in a rational position to decide to default on what others frame you as being obligated to do.

You support taking away social security for people who have committed crimes or had bouts of unemployment?

Based.

And this is why I give as little to society as possible. If it owes me nothing, I owe it nothing and therefore it’s only right I give it as close to nothing as possible to balance the scales.

If society doesn't owe me for working under its rules and constraints, why should I care about society and following its rules and constraints and putting anything into it? In my opinion such a stance makes governmental rule illegitimate, and completely kills the social contract, making me wonder why I should care about following the law at all except through fear, which is not a great long term motivator both historically and personally. If society isn't going to help provide for me when im feeble and old, why should I care about putting anything into it when im young and sharp? Especially when private capital economics is already so biased against me as just some regular working joe.

Sure such thoughts are not probably concerning for the majority of people, but it only takes a small percentage of people losing faith in society combined with a bit of public apathy about people living criminal lives or doing criminal things for them to bring the entire thing to its knees.

I am curious: From where did you get that it owes you that?

So, I completely agree with most things you say. The core here is: Just don't work 40+ years for a retirement.

Take sabbaticals along the way.

Change your career when it is stale.

The counter for this: Don't buy into the hype. You cannot afford sabbaticals if you need two new cars every 4 years and a house that stretches your finances.

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