For me, I look to the past to see what life could have been like were I born 100 - 200 -500 - 1,000 years ago and try to find the positives that being born now has.

And the reality is that even as soon as 100 years ago life was much, much harder and worse in almost every metric. Brutal jobs, brutal hours, with safety of no concern, even if you were a child. Housing? You were lucky if you could heat your home in some way in the winter, and air conditioning didnt even exist yet. Physical labor jobs were a large amount of the work, so many people simple worked themselves into uselessness and then suffered the rest of their lives.

It doesnt get much better going back further than that really. Plague anyone?

Today we enjoy a massive, massive amount of comfort in our lives. Have amazing, tasty, and safe food at our fingertips almost without issue. Can travel the entire globe effortlessly when even a cross country trek could have been a multi-month brutal affair with a death sentence for half the travel party. Modern medicine eliminates so many of the issues of the past.

In reality very few people "just" work for 40 years and then retire useless husks and then die. I suspect you spend some time with friends and loved ones, perhaps even travel and engage in leisure time kings and queens of 200 years ago couldnt dream of during those 40 years.

Yes there are lots of useless jobs out there, but at least you're putting food on the table.

But also, you have to look at it from another angle.

Picture work as your way of trying to help advance humanity. Jobs, other than the useless ones I mentioned, all should have a reason behind their existence.

Don't follow someone else's path. I took a year off to travel in my 20s, a year off to sail in my 30s, and now that I'm 40 I'm planning another year long adventure in the next 5 years. I wasn't born into wealth, I spent less than I earned, invested the rest, and avoided debt. Don't get a big house in the suburbs with a mortgage, new lease car every 4 years, student loans, etc unless that's what your actually want. Set yourself up for success with smart money management so you can do what you want.

Have you tried alcohol? That seems to be the popular approach.

Lets be honest, my retirement plan is my corpse getting tossed in a dumpster.

Have you heard of the five stages of grief? That's probably the best first way to deal with it. No capitalist/socialist/fascist/technocratic/authoritarian utopia will be able to fix that. I don't believe there is a better system yet than what the western world already has. Maybe one day UBI will exist and everyone will have more freedom to enjoy their passions but even then it you'll still have to work most of your life.

Best you can do is figure out what you want out of your life and take the steps to do it. Like what most people have said, living below your means helps with funding your goals and protecting yourself against accidents. Find ways to do what you want now but know there's always a trade off. It isn't fair but I don't think it ever has been, except for a very privileged class of people.

im at 30+ (if you don't include working while at school but depending on your parents but still basically constantly having to do something you don't really want to) and the real scary thing is I don't see a time where I will be able to afford to retire but at somepoint I just will physically or mentally not be able to and then I have not idea how I will make things work since everything will get more expensive given I am physically and mentally unable to do things like work. socail security will be a bit inadequate and savings will drain until presumably I will be in some medicaid institution with my wife.

Enjoy life now and realise that the 65 of tomorrow isn't the 65 of 100 years ago?

People live in good shape for at least 15 years after they retire, just stay in shape in the meantime and you'll be both having fun while you're young and having fun when you retire.

Hate to say it, but I actually enjoy my job. Would I rather be playing video games and vacationing with friends in the mountains? Of course. But I'd also like to eat potato chips and pizza every day, which would get boring. I work in oil and gas, in environmental, and the money is decent and everyone is just trying really hard to do the right thing and meet government regulatory requirements at every step--regardless of mainstream anti-O&G sentiments. I deal with technical challenges, engineering complexity, and social diversity every day and my brain is better off for it than if I were just cozy on my couch instead. I do consider becoming self employed though--not because I hate my job, but because I would appreciate more control over my own life.

The key is to do your living now while you still can. Don't waste your youth on a grind that will get you nothing.

You simply work

Because like it or not, you need resources to live. The entire bullshit fairytale (or furry tail) of working in your own vegetable garden to live off the lands IS STILL WORKING YOU LAZY ASSHOLE. And it will be working a lot harder for a lot less resources with a lot more risk when your crops fail

Somehow you snowflake types (sorry, but yeahyou "I hate to work, hoe can I sit on my ass for the next 40 years and have someone take care of me?) somehow really roped yourself into the idea that you can live off air or something. No matter how you do It, no matter what system you implement, you still gotta work!

I worked hard for what I got and I don't have much, and that is fine, I have enough z I don't needs a super yacht (nor should anyone, but that is a different story). Yes, I too sometimes have bad day and don't want to get out of bed but then I just make myself, you know, have some discipline?

You will NOT be able to get by doing nothing unless you leech off and abuse someone else, or an entire group. Until we have fully human like AI robots thatcan do all of our tasks, humans are required to do work, PERIOD.

If nobody will work anymore and we all go to our fantasy vegetable garden then within months, medicine will run out, say goodbye to grandma and everyone that has diabetes or cancer or anything else, and that goodbye will be painful and excruciating. Then after a few months millions more will die from food shortages. Want to complain about it on the internet? Well fuck you because fuck you, because nobody is working anymore and the internet doesn't work on magic, it runs on hard human labor, meaning that WE HAVE TO WORK.

Putting it on "but evil corporations!!" is a bullshit excuse as well. Like it or not, you need them. Without those evil corporations, no more medication, no more food, no more electricity, no more life for the vast majority of all of us. That evil corporations should change for the better is something that nobody will deny but that is a different story BECAUSE YOU STILL HAVE TO WORK YOU ENTITLED ASSHOLE.

So yes, you are lazy and yes, you need to get off your ass and stop leeching off your mommie. Sorry to be harsh about it but this post just really shows you are entitled and lazy and your post is just really insulting to those that try to live a responsible life and help others. Stop thinking about yourself, you're not the only one here.

/rant