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My grandfather a few years back passed a rather profound point in his life - he had been retired so long that he officially spent less of his life not working than working (despite entering the workforce at 15).

And it's not lost on me I am essentially doing double work: it's not enough for me to generate enough economic value for myself, society kind of depends on me to generate enough surplus value to cover an entire life's worth of labor (Or more! After all I started much later than my grandfather).

In a way, when Keynes predicted that everyone in the future would work a 20 hour workweek, he was right! He just didn't appreciate how much we would use those productivity gains to backfill that vacation time later in life.



How old is your grandfather? Gotta be 100+ correct? I don't think 99.99% of people will experience having worked less years than worked as they age.


Nah. OP's grandfather worked (say) from 15 to 45, and is now older than 75.


Who retires at 45?!?!


I retired at 28. Plenty of people do.


90. Retired early at 60.


If he started working at 15, doesn't that put him at 45 years in the workforce and 30 years retired? He has to make it to 105 to meet your original claim.


I suppose that he could have taken 7.5 years off during his career. More likely is that the math was just a little off.




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