[bachmeier]

> This actually makes 0 sense. Like, do you even understand what you're saying?

It makes perfect sense if the decision to work is based on real, after-tax income. Change the comment to say "the tax rate keeps climbing so I quit working" and it would not occur to anyone to challenge it.

Once you have enough saved to generate income covering the very basics (probably somewhere around $30k/year in a LCOL area in the US) it becomes a question of whether selling a 40-hour block of your time on a weekly basis is worth it. For this individual, it is not.

[mancerayder]

Not 30k a year, even in a LCOL area. Where's your health insurance? Do you even bother with it at that level?

[danaris]

> Change the comment to say "the tax rate keeps climbing so I quit working" and it would not occur to anyone to challenge it.

Um, what?

Many people would challenge that, because it's absolutely bonkers.

The only way it could possibly make sense is if you're already wealthy enough to be able to retire. Which cuts out nearly everyone, even on this hopelessly-skewed forum.

[casey2]

If you don't understand second-order effect that is. What happens when everyone stops working, either QoL falls or prices rise. Labor force rate is at 83.8% for prime age workers. (Most of the QoL add comes from immigrant labor while most of the QoL extraction comes from high tech. So this does complicate the math) The govenment then lacking revenue extracts more from prime age workers and raises the retirement age and early withdrawal penalties.

[inigyou]

That's going to happen regardless of your individual action. You can take a sabbatical and suffer a raised retirement age, or you can not take a sabbatical, and still suffer a raised retirement age. If you want to solve it, a collective action (i.e. government regulation) is necessary.

[vinyl7]

I saw this coming from a mile away. Jobs just don't pay enough anymore, especially with inflation eating away at money faster than pay raises and housing becoming unaffordable for the majority. It's barely worth it to work. But that is what US capitalism has optimized for. Prioritizing the rich capital owners over the proletariat with tax cuts, regulation cuts, not enforcing monopoly laws, spending money on wars and bailing out the large companies etc.