{"id":47082,"date":"2010-09-20T04:00:43","date_gmt":"2010-09-20T11:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/?p=47082"},"modified":"2023-10-26T10:32:44","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T16:32:44","slug":"the-war-on-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/the-war-on-work\/","title":{"rendered":"The war on work"},"content":{"rendered":"

I write a lot at Get Rich Slowly about Financial Independence<\/a>, by which I essentially mean early retirement (or semi-retirement<\/a>). That is, accumulating enough money that I no longer have to work. To me, escape from work has always seemed like the ultimate goal.<\/p>\n

This is probably because my father held out retirement as a sort of Promised Land. He worked hard \u2014 if not always effectively \u2014 and he always made retirement and the end of work seem like the goal of life. And the sooner one reached retirement, the better.<\/p>\n

But whenever I write about early retirement or Financial Independence, I get e-mail and comments from readers who never want to stop working. They love their jobs. Others write to say that we’re not supposed<\/em> like the work that we do, but we’re supposed to do it anyhow. It builds character, and helps us pay the bills.<\/p>\n

I’ve never found these arguments convincing. To me, early retirement has remained the goal.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Dirty Jobs<\/span><\/h2>\n

Last week, Eileen e-mailed a link to a video with a one-line explanation. “This video is WEIRD and COOL and speaks to many GRS ideas like working and satisfaction,” she wrote. Yesterday, I finally had a chance to watch it. This video made me pause to reconsider my notion of work:<\/p>\n