4 ms·

I have the opposite interpretation. Only this class of people was actually able to "not participate in society" for 18 months: > I don't hear people on HN who

I have the opposite interpretation. Only this class of people was actually able to "not participate in society" for 18 months: > I don't hear people on HN who want to continue working remotely being accused of being neurotic or being molly-coddled, and they get get paid well and have very good work conditions. By "this class of people" I don't literally mean people on HN but people in the typical yuppie lines of work. Someone who's actually working class has not had the luxury of doing so. Even if you got every stimulus check that covered maybe 10% of the expenses over the last 1.25 years. So the people who could stay inside indefinitely either never lost their job (transitioned to remote or already worked remote pre-pandemic), or they lost their job but had such a massive nest egg that they were able to weather it. Actual working-class people have not been sheltering inside for 18 months. In my opinion it's unhealthy to do so, so I'm not alleging that it would be a good thing if the working class hid inside too, but rather that the "I'm not ready to return to normal" crowd is driven by neuroticism and a crippling fear of life itself rather than it being some actual necessary result of this respiratory virus pandemic.

ryandrake 5y ago
One of the things I realized during the pandemic was that the ability to "not participate in society," or more specifically, the option to choose when and how you participate in society, is amazing and valuable. Most of us don't have this option. We have to work in a stupid office or behind the counter at some restaurant and we have to deal with assholes on the road, and we have to rely on disagreeable people to do stuff we can't do ourselves, and it all boils down to these little forced-interactions with people all day every day, just to live. Yuck! I'm blessed to have a computer job that can be done from home, and because of that, this past year has been the best year of my life, because it became acceptable to simply opt-out of all this crap. I realize not everyone had this option, and I truly feel humble and grateful that I have. One of the things I'm looking forward to most in retirement is having the financial independence to just yeet myself off to the woods and live as a hermit, never having to deal with society again, unless it's on my own terms.
SyzygistSix 5y ago
I know a good number of service industry people that have been out of work for 18 months and are not very interested in going back to work under the old terms.

ryandrake 5y ago

One of the things I realized during the pandemic was that the ability to "not participate in society," or more specifically, the option to choose when and how you participate in society, is amazing and valuable. Most of us don't have this option. We have to work in a stupid office or behind the counter at some restaurant and we have to deal with assholes on the road, and we have to rely on disagreeable people to do stuff we can't do ourselves, and it all boils down to these little forced-interactions with people all day every day, just to live. Yuck! I'm blessed to have a computer job that can be done from home, and because of that, this past year has been the best year of my life, because it became acceptable to simply opt-out of all this crap. I realize not everyone had this option, and I truly feel humble and grateful that I have. One of the things I'm looking forward to most in retirement is having the financial independence to just yeet myself off to the woods and live as a hermit, never having to deal with society again, unless it's on my own terms.

SyzygistSix 5y ago

I know a good number of service industry people that have been out of work for 18 months and are not very interested in going back to work under the old terms.