adults who don't have to work C/D

...people who stay unemployed for months and months and don't starve...

not really sure what this means except to say food stamps ain't no badge of honor, bro.

I don't envy him. He's 42/43 now and has spent years doing nothing more exciting than watching TV.

maybe he's not living off teh savings no more?

What is classic though: people like this slowly watching their parents' fortune collapse and slowly realise they have to enter the real world and get a proper fucking job.

Buster Bluth to thread!

I suppose this sort of thing is a mixed blessing - there's certainly a lot of trade-offs. Obviously, it's really easy to be very miserable in that kind of lifestyle.

The thing I hate is when people who have a bit of money and have travelled extensively get all snobby about that and act like people who don't have the money or time to travel are philistines or something.

The life of leisure seems like a mindfuck. Especially if you're massively wealthy.

"Something had happened, a thing which years ago had been the eagerest hope of many, many good citizens of the town. And now it came at last: George Amberson Minafer had got his comeuppance. He'd got it three times filled and running over. But those who had longed for it were not there to see it. And they never knew it. Those who were still living had forgotten all about it...and all about him."

anyone that hates on them is just jealous

No shame, either. You can buy anything with them! Beer! Ice cream! What's really baffling to me is people who qualify for food stamps but don't get them. Pride is dumb.

i do this, but i'm using my laptop to send out resumes! and to be fair, it's not like iced coffee is expensive. you can make your two bucks go a long way in one of those places.

heh, i wasn't knocking it! it's a great thing that you can do in cities to get out of the house. it's just easy to think that you are the only person there that is looking for a job, and that everyone else is somehow an extremely successful and artistic alternative filmmaker or something....

Wish I were one too though. :(

I think in Australia we're "lucky" that being unemployed isnt an end of the world starvation disaster - esp if you're single and prepared to slum it a bit - one can get the dole and stay on it quite some time, we dont have limits on it like they do in other countries. The Dole Bludger's an aussie tradition way more than a trustfund kid would be!

xpost--ha

I too have never ever met or even remotely known anyone who could live off inheritance money, but I assume they exist.

you know, it really doesnt bother me because i know im middle-lower class, he's a middle-upper. plus, i work in uni development so i deal with ridiculously wealthy people on a daily basis. its just part of their life, all the lounging about and whatnot.

Of course not, but no one makes you wear a sandwich board that says you use food stamps, either. "Welfare" in the US is not one thing, it's a system of (quickly crumbling) safeguards that help keep you off the street... um, hopefully. Food stamps are one of these. Food stamps are great. They make food suddenly extremely cheap.

There is a stigma, but it bugs me when people self-apply it. There's a stigma attached to being poor in general, but guess what? You are poor. Get real. Get some fucking food stamps. Don't choose to not take advantage of what your country is willing to offer you because you're afraid of what the woman in line behind you at the grocery store will think. That's just silly.

The problem with this lifestyle is that those who live it often don't actually *understand* that others don't and can't live it. Like the "artist" who had the time and the leisure to pursue his "muse" while derriding those who didn't have the time and/or the leisure left from working a real job in order to support themselves. That sort of thing pisses me off.

But generally the people I've known like this have been so spoiled and/or f*cked up that I don't envy their lifestyle.

People are certainly entitled to their tastes, but I find it kinda icky when people glom on to a neighborhood scene because they like its cultural mythology. To me, it's just totally laughable when people who have a lot of money decide to live in certain neighborhoods under fairly atrocious living conditions for the sake of coolness or being part of some loosely-definined community. I think it lacks vision and creativity - surely you can be part of a community or be creative living on your own terms. Buying into a narrative that's already passed you by just seems narrow-minded and foolish to me, especially if they are paying big money to live in a place that gives the impression of poverty to the untrained eye.

while i am not inside your brain, i think you're bothered by wealthy people masquerading as middle / lower class.

I didn't inherit any money but I've made a reasonable amount of it. I'm not rich but have a large house, no mortgage to speak of, other property and investments. My wife is more career minded and very successful - she earns more than I do, although that didn't use to be the case. She doesn't care whether I work or not. I have skills and experience that enable me to earn more than I need. I can easily earn £150 an hour. I could do more, but provided I have around £100k a year I'd rather have the extra time than the extra money.

I have the occasional guilt pang that life is relatively easy for me, but I'm not unselfish enough that I would voluntarily give it up. I've done the full-time job thing, hated it, and barring calamity, won't do it again. Adults who have to work (as opposed to adults who want to) = dud.

I suspect I'm not the only Ilxer in this kind of position and that others are keeping their heads down (even more than I am).

wow.

of course the momuslike attitude whereby those who must work for a living have somehow compromised their claims of artistic authenticity is collosal dud.

Moley and kenc OTM. If people arent working because they're pursuing creative pursuits, the hurrah! They're often pretty skint anyway. And hell, who said writing a novel (for eg) isnt working? Its bloody hard work! But like Ken said, it is a fucking shame most of us have not only to work, but work full time, and hard, long hours in a job we dont like and often cant even do very well. Why the hell have we let society come to this? Once upon a time large companies survived by forcing kiddies to work 15 hours a day in factories. Now large corporations survive by expecting undertrained and underpaid employees to do the job of 2 or more people each, and work 15 hours a day.

Its bloody ricidulous and it has to change. I want it to change in my life, I really deeply do. If only I knew how.

The problem with this lifestyle is that those who live it often don't actually *understand* that others don't and can't live it.
Yes. Also, like Amateurist was saying. I hate being made to feel that I'm a sellout becuase I have a job. I need money to pay for groceries and rent!

Or is there? The problem is the attitude. The latter (in my experience) often seem to lack any kind of work ethic, or indeed, any ability to "see things through". This coupled with the entitlement issues, the inability to understand that others *do* have to concentrate on the mundane aspects of putting a roof over their head, because they've never really had to. Or misinterpreting *their* experiences of vanity jobs to keep them entertained as being representative with the entire phenomenon of dayjobs.

The former... (self made wealthy) ...I've had far less experience of. I would guess that they don't lack the ability to see things through. However, the few that I have known seem to have this smug attitude of "if I had the drive/determination/guts/talent/luck to do this, why can't the rest of you lazy bastards?" (Though this is based on a far more limited range than the trustafarians.)

I dunno. This is probably hypocrisy coming from me, as I've had periods of Not Having To Work for both reasons. I've had windfall contacts that landed me with enough money not to work for a year, and I had that trustfund that unfortunately ran out. My hope my personal attitude didn't change, but I tried to always remember what Working was like, and not to take my Lesiure for granted.

Two weeks into my Proper Job, and god, I miss that Leisure. :-(

None of this has made any sense, and I'm well aware of the hypocrisy of all of it.