I don't expect to retire.

I'll probably be found at my desk on a Monday, not even first thing, but like, at 11:45, after dying there sometime Friday afternoon, and people just thought I was "working late" and left for the weekend, while I'm a literal corpse.

Whatever. I'm over it. I won't have any fucks left to give when that happens because I won't be alive to give any fucks.

Gotta get together

This is it. This is literally the secret behind which Utopia is sealed. There are so, so many decent, empathetic humans that we could easily banish the narcissist, malevolent dipshits that make earth hell from our society.

Problem: even "good" humans have their flaws baked into their genes and brains, we are far too easily swept up into a a "us vs. them" dynamic. The only way of fixing this is to manually control your emotional behaviour and correct yourself constantly. Don‘t exhaust yourself with that, but try to remember what you really value before becoming a puppet for people with bad interests.

When people say "no one works" they always still want some people to work.

4 day work weeks or 52 vacation days per year as a minimum. You can either take one day a week and only work 4 days each week, or save them up and take a 10 week vacation.

There was a time back when this was possible.

Bikers back in the day would work construction or some other hard labor for half the year and then hit the road for 2-4 months.

The partial working income was enough to cover all thier bills, the bike/gear, motel stays and drinking.

I mean continuous 3 month vacation is not a thing, even in Europe

I get that it's fun to dunk on us Americans, but do you really have 3 months paid time off from work every year?

I'm not really a Marxist but I do believe in "Workers of the world, unite!" and that includes Yankees. Laughing at your misfortune because I'm getting fucked with slightly more lube would be kinda short sighted.

Eh. In practice, we're fairly abused as well. I may have more holidays than my US counterparts, but in reality I can only take vacation when the schedule of the company allows it, which is never more than a week at a time at best and like three days in a row realistically.

Hey neighbor! Sweden too, need a few weeks to find that one sunny summer day

Hot take: tons of office jobs are super reasonable. Small to mid sized companies that don't do anything particularly exciting, where you can find a position where you play an important role in the company but someone else can take on the work you normally do when needed, or the work you do only needs to be done at certain times of the year. You can talk directly to the owner, or managers have leeway to handle employees schedules without a ton of oversight.

Talk to whoever you need to. Explain how time off is more important to you than pay, and how the company will still do well when you take extended time off. It goes 1 of 3 ways. They agree immediately - win. They want proof that your idea will work - so prove it will work, then win. Or they outright refuse or fire you, in which case you find somewhere else to work and try again until you win.

Cries in United States

Am Swede. I have a legal 25. Then my company gives me +5, and the Union has negotiated 9 more (ark) and then, this year, my boss gave me 5 more. So I know that I am far above the average in sweden, but I currently sit on 44 paid vacation days a year

Fuck that. Take as much time off as you can get.

There are not many employers that allow that in my experience.