Do you know anyone who is not working because they CHOOSE not to work?

[BCRanger10]

Do you know or have you ever known anyone who does not have a job because they CHOOSE not have or find one? They're not disabled or anything like that, but they just decided not to work.

[MrOracle]

Prior to 2014, I was a satellite TV installer, and when I started doing that in 2006 I would be given jobs all over the place. I might be in a McMansion in a very upscale neighborhood one day and in the most dangerous of public housing 20 miles away the next, and everything in between.

At that time, there was another common thing happening in the town I lived in and especially a couple of towns over - this was before the 2008 real estate crash - people were buying homes, including large upscale homes, and renting them out to Section 8 tenants. And so, typically, you would have a 50-something woman who had lived in a small 2-bedroom apartment in a town closer to the city (San Francisco in this case) who signed up for Section 8 a number of years before (because there is a waiting list around 6 years long) and who had claimed every child and grandchild as a dependant, even though clearly 10 people weren't living in her 2-bedroom apartment.

When she finally got to the top of the list, because she had so many dependants listed, she could qualify for the 4000 square foot 6-bedroom new construction house on the golf course. She would be paying $400 per month rent on a house with a $4200/month rental price, with taxpayers paying the difference.

Typically, she would move in with 2 adult children (usually female) and several grandchildren. And even though men were not allowed to live in the house, all three women would have boyfriends living there. Inevitably, we would be installing TV into at least 6 rooms, and sometimes 8 (the maximum for new installs). And because the occupants essentially ignored us as we worked, they often spoke VERY freely around us. The boyfriends and the adult children never had jobs, and most of them were on 100% disability courtesy of a doctor who was happy to sign off in return for some cash. Grandma had to work to keep Section 8 until she could get her disability claim processed, but she would be the only employed person in the household.

Did I mention that there were always Escalades, Mercedes, and V8 sports cars in the driveway? Rarely fewer than 5 cars. And that someone was always teaching them how to scam a different government program. On several occasions, there was clearly prostitution going on, and more than once involving underage grandkids. Drug dealing was also common.

I ran into some variation of this at least 40 or 50 times over a 3 year period. Not always as bad, but most were bad. And these people casually talked about all of it without any concern for our presence - it was all just a normal part of their lives.

I've also known a couple of people who got large sums of money (one got an injury settlement from a childhood injury, and one inherited a lucrative construction business) and both had been completely spoiled by well-off, guilty liberal parents, and neither one ever worked. The latter just died a week ago, having drank herself to death, and the other may also be dead now - he was an addict and I last heard of him more than a decade ago.

[BCRanger10]

If I may ask, what TV provider did you work for?

[MrOracle]

Both DirecTV and Dish Network, but at that time mostly DirecTV.

[indissoluble]

Nope, most people that I know who are unemployed are due to employment gaps. I know a slew of engineers and scientists that are in this situation. Some were making $180K to $200K a year, but once they lost their good job there was no work at any level and even after 1000s of applications they couldn't get more work, which turned into time unemployed and now they've been out of work too long to return to their career path that they have graduate degrees in. Companies will not hire them. It's dumb. The companies will import H1-Bs from Indian and China, but they won't hire Americans that went through the school system graduating with GPAs over 4.0, many whom graduated high school a year or two early, who went on to double major in mathematics and fields of engineering and computer science that went on to get masters degrees and worked in industry for like 10+ years, who have security clearances and the whole shebang. Corporations love passing over American talent for DEI and immigrants.

[indissoluble]

The woke corporations are burning down our nation from the inside...

[indissoluble]

Crazy how you censored what I said to protect Ukraine. You Nazis love burning books.

[emeraldsaphire]

Well that's kinda me. Though I'd say being a SAHM is a lot of work. Like first thing this morning I mopped all the floors.

[OneViewpoint]

Well sorta, yes. That's me. I became financially independent about 10 years ago. I left Fortune 100 finance and private equity to start my own consulting practice. These days I consult for investment banks, private equity, hedge funds, and some manufacturing businesses. All my clients come to me by word of mouth form a circle of friends and previous clients. I can pick and choose who I want to work with, when I want to take on more work, how much I earn, and what projects are interesting to me. None of my clients have much leverage over me because I don't need the money. I do it for the interesting challenges. So if I want to say take the entire summer off, yes I can choose not to work for 3-4 months. It's a pretty good life.

[NathanDavis]

yep... a long time friend from high-school

basically... his family is that rich, so... when he was like "I don't need to work a single day in my life"

he meant it, and he still hasn't have any job or day of "work" lmao

[Maybe_Maybe_not]

Yep, I know one personally.

His parents died while he was in his 30s, he inherited a million € house and various dividends. He chose to live on dividend income only, becoming a rentier, self-allocating a monthly income equivalent to something slightly above the minimum wage. He never really worked anyway, prior to that. So he just kept "chilling" instead. Though I don't envy him, psychologically he's not really in good shape, switching on and off from depressive phases.

[molonski2]

Over the years I've known indirectly a literal plathora of potential non working individuals..

They don't want a job.


Not friends though.

[exitseven]

During Covid I lost my job so I collected unemployment for 18 months. If I could have figured out some scam to keep those checks coming I never would have gone back to work.

[jamesgoldman]

Nope, my circle are mostly business people who do double the work of employees

[worldscolide]

No thank God, I wouldn't be friends with someone like that.

[sage2021]

No, everyone I know is working.

[Anonymous]

Why do you ask?

[Agape93]

Yeap

[Jen_oic]

Not really