Thursday, July 15, 2021

The groundhog days of retirement

"I have been talking about retirement for a number of years," the neighbor said.  He continued after a pause. "You have plenty to contribute."

The layoff compels me to wonder what exactly it is that I will contribute to this world.  Job loss exposes the emperor with no clothes!

Living without a job is beyond most of our imaginations.  In the years past, I have asked students to think about the possibility that automation becoming so efficient that millions of us could just do nothing and get some kind of a universal basic income that could take care of the basic needs.  If one didn't want anything more than those basic needs, then there will be no pressure to work. 

The response from students was always overwhelming--they didn't want lives without jobs.  They were concerned about what they would do with all the time.  Some even worried that free time might tempt people to engage in destructive acts.

Work apparently gives meaning to our lives--even for the true believers who find meaning in their faiths.  Take away that work, and the existential question takes the stage, and we don't ever want to deal with that drama!

As the poet extraordinaire Kannadasan phrased it in this phenomenal song in Apoorva Ragangal: காலை எழுந்தவுடன் நாளைய கேள்வி, which roughly translates to "After waking up, one ponders about the day."  A horrible translation on my part, but you get the drift.

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