One of my best friends retired the moment she left school at 18. No, she didn’t have any investment income, and that led to spectacular adventures and quite a few problems. But she absolutely refused to conform to the “respectable” life narrative, and has never had a “normal” job. She has run her own Internet marketing company, and done freelance work, but the idea of paying to a pension, or collaborating in any way with “the system”, is anathema. Now she is in her mid-50s, and has a rural hovel where she builds her own home and grows her own food. She is free, and we get along very well!
I took a leap of faith around 2018: telling very uncomfortable truths was more important than staying socially acceptable in my tech and telecoms world. Overall the world has provided what I needed when I needed it, and my “social security” is the offer of room and board from many people over the years should I ever need it. I am not beholden to any employer, have no mortgage to pay (although I do have rent), and don’t concern myself in the slightest with savings for old age. The battles in the present are of a different order, and if there is any justice in this life then I have nothing to fear in my dotage.
What I am learning is how “systems of systems” of power all interlock to keep people in low consciousness, social subjugation, and economic impoverishment. The root of all evil is the love of money, and bankers seem to be our worst enemies — more than false prophets, religious spirits, greedy lawyers, psychopathic doctors, corrupt police, or lying politicians. Being a dissident has shown me how terrified most people are of losing their appearance of security in the material world, even though it can be yanked away from them at any moment by the enemy they give their life force to. How can we give people enough safety to say “no” to participation in evil, but without creating new dangers or perverse incentives?
Pensions and mortgages act as social control