[0x20cowboy]

I suppose it’s in how you word it. I’ve given up on trying to get a job because there is no point in trying. I can’t afford to pay my rent, but I guess you could call that early retirement.

[mothballed]

If you can stomach it, the seafood canning and fishing industry in Alaska will usually (IDK what the situation is this year) hire anyone off the street, work them 16 hours a day for several months, and give them "free housing." You'll get dumped back in Seattle in several months with at least $10k in your pocket.

Edit: genuinely perplexed on the response. This saved my ass one winter when I had nothing for rent.

[_DeadFred_]

People who have been aged out of tech aren't going to be able to physically pull off 16 hour days in Alaska.

[lenkite]

If you are working 16 hours a day, you won't even go to your "free housing", you will sleep next to your workplace on a mat and then try and finish toilet/bath in office restroom in 1hour, so you can at-least get some restful hours of sleep before the next day.

[kristianp]

Surely it's not actually 16 hours a day, that would leave maybe 6 hours for sleep after other needs are taken care of.

[insane_dreamer]

my brother did that 20 years ago; I didn't realize it was still a thing today

[t-writescode]

I thought the fishing industry paid … way more than 10k / 3 months. Color me surprised o.O

[ponector]

It is a seasonal low skilled work. How much should it pay? Overall it is comparable to a seasonal farm work: mostly done by immigrants

[satvikpendem]

That's net after housing, perhaps a good deal depending on what your rent would've been otherwise.

[cherryteastain]

Point of labor participation is that it's independent of whether you want to be employed or not.

[overfeed]

You and gp agree that characterizing non-paticipation as (voluntary) "early retirement" is unsupported.

[Obscurity4340]

That sounds kinda pointless unless the point of the stats is to make the State and Enterprise look good and justify cuts to non-corporate WELFARE

[nativeit]

Ding ding ding!

[Den_VR]

You can’t pay your rent? But then where will you live?

[nativeit]

A question that roughly 500,000 people in America find themselves asking. So far, the answer seems to be “in a pup tent in the woods behind Walmart”, because there’s not a ton of great options otherwise.