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is retirement moral?
I wrote this on June 7th, 2022 Recently I joined an anarchism subreddit and I've enjoyed debating anarchist concepts with folks from a pro-anarchism perspective. Way more interesting than trying to debate Libertarians, who seem to be mostly assholes on the Internet nowadays. One person asked about how to save for retirement in an ethical pro-anarchist way, and most responses said that's currently impossible under our capitalist framework -- any savings you set aside will be used as capital to siphon either interest or profits from the working class to your pile of wealth, while also adding to the profits of the intermediary financial institutions. I suggested that the concept of retirement was probably anti-anarchist -- that you'd set yourself up in a life of leisure while everybody else continues to work (for you). I also said the best way to prepare for later in life would be to buy a modest home and pay off the mortgage early -- then you could live in the home fairly inexpensively as you get older, without piling up savings that would be used as capital, etc. The OP seemed offended at my suggestion that retirement may be unethical under anarchism, and downvoted my response, saying that under my "logic" then nobody could take weekends off. I said there's a huge difference between taking a day or two off to rest and setting yourself up for decades of leisure when you don't work at all. But, if you're on the socialist or anarchist ends of the political spectrum, what's the point of piling up savings for yourself in the amounts that would be required to finance decades of retirement? The only way retirement savings works is as capital to extract interest and/or profits from the working class -- that's what retirement accounts and pension funds do. They invest in the capitalist system, providing THE CAPITAL. You are literally a capitalist if you have a 401(k). If your employer contributes to a pension fund on your behalf, that pension fund is providing capital and enriching you at the expense of the working class. The OP felt like I was condemning him to a life of slavery with no escape until death. Ah ... yes ... the vision of retirement is what makes your current slavery worthwhile, eh? The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The promise that you too may someday be a junior member of the capitalist leisure class.
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