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Comment by Edd314159 | Hacker News Reader

What an utterly privileged life we lead when we can just decide to quit our jobs because things are getting too “absurd”.

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Sure, but because work is something we spend so much time on, when workers can quit when the work feels meaningless or absurd, that's a good thing. We should aspire for a society where all workers can do that.

I’m making no comment about how things _should_ broadly be. Only that we should consciously appreciate how rare it is for quitting to be a practical, and non-ruinous, option.

My spouse and I both work. We also live so far within our means that either one of us could quit tomorrow and our lifestyle would not change.

Is that privilege? I consider it basic fiscal responsibility.

I’m in a similar situation. I’m just saying that I know a lot of people who work much harder than me, without anywhere near the same financial freedom. I think it’s good to meditate on that fact regularly.

We should all aspire to that, but by that measurement, a huge percentage of the population don't have "basic fiscal responsibility." I know exactly one person who could quit their job tomorrow and not have to change his lifestyle. It's extremely rare, and I think qualifies as "privilege."

To qualify this: yes I think anyone that can just walk away from this job because its tuesday and they don't like tuesdays is extremely privileged, there is no doubt. I was/am speaking purely from a financial perspective.

If one cannot live within their means and save up an emergency fund of ~6 months, I don't think that is unprivileged, that is just not responsible.

Can everyone do this? Probably not, life is hard. Have most people made a series of life decisions for which they not longer want to be culpable, instead complaining about how hard life is? Almost always. There are always edge cases, and reasons we need a solid social safety net, I advocate for social safety nets. Most people just spend too much money and bitch that they're paycheck-to-paycheck.

Yeah, a huge percentage don't.

It's not privilege, it was demanded by workers who fought hard to obtain it. We should be more conscious of this, if only to help stave off the constant attempts to erode what our ancestors gained for us.

If you literally can't quit your job, that's called slavery, you realize that?

Well yeah. We collectively figure out that the industry is toxic as hell and quit in large numbers. Then a year or two later, suddenly everyone's hiring with somehow even higher pay than the previous cycle because all the competent people have left and now the companies who tried negging us are on fire.

Maybe this time management will learn its lesson but probably not.

Sure and what is the issue of that? Myself and those close to me have worked very hard so I can be confortable in life

I think it's fine if a person (1) recognizes and appreciates the situation, and (2) can make it work without starving to death. There are a million examples of luxury in the first world and we're ignorant of most of them.

Isn't this how it should be? To have the freedom to not tolerate (and to not encourage) bullshit "added value" companies, rent-seeking parasites ...

Kinda sounds like "not slavery" with extra steps

You might be factually correct about the privileged part, but if you think about it, it's simply a privilege to not be a slave of capitalism...

Careful now, you mustn't upset the cult of the job creator.

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