Escaping the Job System

What do you want to be when you grow up? It's a question I remember being asked a lot when I was younger. I wonder how many people are doing what they said they wanted to do as a child? Family, friends, schools, job counselors, and society at large teach us to be good little employees. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being an employee. What I'm saying is that most of us are corralled into that mold when it might not be right for us. Look at those who change the world. From what I see they're usually not followers. They go against the grain to do something bigger. There might be some suffering for a long time until their dream comes to fruition, but they stick with it. The three ways I'd like to talk about escaping the job market are starting your own business, working for a finite period of time as an employee and investing as much as possible, and lowering expenses to the lowest possible level so the need for money is minimal.

The most exciting way to escape the job system is to create your own income by starting a business. This could include inventing something or innovating it to make it better. The very essence of capitalism is starting a business that works without you ultimately. Easier said than done I know. We're not taught how to do this by the school system which leaves us fending for ourselves through trial and error. I will only speak in theory here because I haven't done this. It's not easy for sure. The trick is to start something that doesn't cost much, like what you do, and make sure people are willing to pay you for it. Possibly the most important thing is selling and marketing. No one will give you money if they don't know about you.

The second and probably most realistic way for most people to escape needing an employer for survival is to take their wage money and buy publicly traded companies either individually or through an index mutual fund. Anyone can do this now. It's not that hard at all. This method does require selling your services on the wage economy as an employee for a time. The lower you can keep your expenses and the more you can save the quicker you can tell your boss bye bye.

Another way to drop out so to speak is to have extremely low overhead. The lower your expenses the less your need for money. In this situation you could possibly survive on even a part time job earning minimum wage. Most people probably don't want to live this way. Of the three this is the one most focused on dropping out. If you can find some kind of communal living that makes this path easier. The two mentioned above defeat the system while this one drops out. A combination of all three is probably ideal to not need a job anymore.

The reason I write this is it bothers me the amount of power employers have over our very survival. That's the way the system is set up, but there are ways to lessen their power. Most of us need our employee earnings to have a place to live and food to eat. I understand that. My point is we're not taught anything different than going into work everyday doing someone else's bidding for 40 years. The people that I consider to be successful don't do that. They figure out a way around the system within the system. What I'm advocating here is freedom and options. I hope this gets you thinking about ways to be less reliant on the good nature of an employer for your very survival.