I was having lunch with a friend over the weekend when I told them that I wanted to retire. They laughed out loud and replied, "You're not even old enough yet!!"
Technically, they are right. The retirement age in the United States is officially 67 years old.
But why can't the retirement age be 50 years old?
The life expectancy has increased in the United States to 78.4 years old.
So why can't you start working at 18 per se, and retire at 50, giving 32 years of contribution while enjoying your remaining 28 years to actually live and enjoy your life and the beauty that has to offer.
We all know why this is unobtainable. There is more than enough money and resources for the necessities of all people to be met. But we are programmed from birth through role modeling, education, and social reinforcement, that work defines all of us.
But the reality is that corporations exploit labor while inturn, our government exploits its people through taxes and compensation.
The money we pay for taxes is supposed to go towards education, infrastructure, and healthcare, for example. But it doesn't.
Our money goes to everything else but us. Corporations and unchecked capitalism exploit workers through ridiculous tagged work weeks and low wages. Both of these play heavily into why we spend our entire lives working just to live when the world was created for the exact opposite of that.
Regardless of what you believe in, faith, or the universe, our current mode of life - what we have known life to be - was never designed to be actual human life.
Exploitation, oppression, mistrust, and greed have created our daily lives. Not us, those who live them.
