system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
I refuse to "work" and I live off welfare. I don't see what's wrong with this and I will do it as long as I can get away with it. CMV.

This is a throwaway account for obvious reasons. I have been a long time lurker on reddit. This is my first post. I will probably only use this account only for this CMV and its responses. This CMV post might dramatically change my life if people can change my view. Why? Because I will get off welfare and look for a job immediately. If not, well then, nothing will change obviously.

Let me first define work. To me the phrase "work" is already as vague as terms like "freedom" and the like and people have broadly different definitions of this. Therefore, for the sake of avoiding semantics about the definition of "work", I'll define "work" as this: being paid to do a job for the sakes of being able to sustain a living and maybe even a little bit more for reasonable wants.

First off, I don't think society even understands the purpose of working to begin with. As in, I think society has lost the plot. The reason people work should be for the following main reason: to contribute meaningfully to society. Secondary reasons include: 2) because it is fun. 3) because it is fulfilling. 

No society, we should not be doing work simply because if you don't, somehow you're a "leech/parasite/waste of space/drain on society". It seems like most of society (especially those on the lower economic spectrum) are now working for the sake of working (usually out of fear of death) rather than for any real value. Rather than working to actually contribute meaningful labour for the benefit of society, it has devolved into a selfish individualistic game with little to no regard of human basic needs or happiness. Rather, it seems people work because they are forced to under the current economic system regardless of whether it actually is making any difference.

I don't believe my self-worth or value is based on how much I earn, how much money I have or what "work" I have. "Work" defined as what I wrote above.

Since it is hard to reason without bias as to what actually "contributes" to society, I will not focus on what contributes. I will focus instead on what doesn't contribute: 
If there is already technology that can do what I do better/faster/more efficiently or a combination of the above than I can, I am contributing nothing by doing that task. If this is too vague, here's an example: a scribe contributes nothing to society if there are machines that can print out books faster and infinitely more efficiently through printing press. I stuck to an example that happened long, long ago because I know people are touchy about this stuff. There are obviously many modern/current examples though of automation using machines doing better jobs than humans though.

I will try to keep things brief about my childhood: 
- I had an emotionally-abusive and psychologically-abusive childhood. This has given me trust issues. 
- My mom was okay, but my dad always forced things to go his way. Therefore, because of him, I never had a social-life. He only cared about studying for school and nothing else. Literally. Wouldn't let me learn how to drive, get into relationships or anything that involved going outside of the house, except school. 
- Also was very controlling and sheltered me from doing anything except studying and cleaning the house. I used to have video games, but he took them away too because... of school. So I really only had the internet, and he really only let me have that because I told him it was for "school". Therefore, I developed all my interests on the internet.

You might wonder why I gave you those details. Reason being because I'm almost sure people would say stuff about how I should get out there and do things with my life and get laid or something. And stuff like, "Don't you feel like you're wasting your life away?" comments. I don't have any desires for anything outside that of doing stuff on the internet. No interest in sport, no interest in relationships. No interests in sex, no interests in alcohol/drugs. You can bet that I became extremely socially awkward and shy. I especially hate school because of all the things I was forced to do when I had little to no interest or desires for learning things that didn't give me any skills or enjoyment. I feel like my family as well as society were forcing me to do things with no care or concern about what I truly felt about anything. In other words, I felt and still feel society and my family were working against me, not with me; all the way up to now. Anyway, long story short, by the end of high school, I became an extreme shut in (hikikomori) only leaving my room when required by my parents or for food.

Anyway, for a long time I used the internet as a coping mechanism by watching videos and doing shit online up until I realized that I wasn't useless at all, only that society and my parents thinks I'm useless - that I could still have interests and learn stuff through the internet for free online. Once my attitude changed and I realized that my value wasn't tied to a worthless job or how much money I had, I started finding interests that I enjoyed. My relationship started going very sour with my parents, and I got sick of their verbal abuse and constant threat for abandonment anyway (do 'X' chore or else I will kick you out sort of thing). Without getting too specific, I was forced to leave. Let me say this was the most traumatic experience of my life, especially if you consider that my parents nor school ever really showed me how to do anything, from driving a car, writing a CV, or even how to use the phone (was never allowed to have a phone). 

I still really resent them to this day, and I don't buy this "tough love" bullshit. I still really hate them for doing it. Luckily, the country I live in has a strong social welfare system so I was able to use this to get help. And this is what I'm living off of. Now you might be wondering, if society was kind enough to provide welfare and you realize this, why are you taking advantage of it? Good question. Reason being is that like most other countries, there is compulsory schooling. Let me say that the "compulsory schooling" taught me absolutely nothing about living independently and nothing about how to get a job, didn't even know what a CV was when I left school. Didn't show me anything useful. It was more about preparing me to go to university/college or whatever they call it where you live. I feel the compulsory schooling sucked up a lot of my time and didn't prepare me for anything. Didn't help with my restrictive abusive parents either. The compulsory schooling forced upon by society sucked up a lot of my time and didn't even show me how to look after myself. Therefore it was at least partly to blame for my predicament. In other words, it took all my time and yet didn't show me how to do anything. If you take away a person's opportunity to understand things and restrict him from understanding how to provide for himself, you damn well should be prepared to provide for him. At least that's what I think.

To cut to the chase, I use that income to support myself but now instead of watching pointless cartoons and videos of cats as a coping mechanism, I'm learning stuff online about whatever interests me. And for the first time since never, I actually enjoy life. I am free from the bullshit put on me by society and my parents. And since I have no interest in anything else nor have the desire or interest of anything outside of the house since I never developed an interest in that, I use this time learning about things online doing whatever the hell I want. I learnt about and used Torrents for a start and get a lot of stuff through that; teaching myself a bunch of other things on my own pace and that I actually am interested in.

Given that, I realized how pointless working for the sake of income really is, and I now see that life can be fulfilling without the need of a job. I say this because society, school, parents and everyone I knew always made it a point to either imply or rudely tell me that I should get a job otherwise I am worth nothing. Well to that stupid idea, I now laugh. I realize now that a lot of people do pointless jobs. I read constantly of people having "downtime" in work. Basically being paid for not doing anything. That sounds pointless. Or people browsing reddit when they're supposed to work or something similar: also bullshit. I learnt about "malicious compliance" and "slowdowns". I learnt of all the technology currently available that could ultimately replace people's jobs, and I now find it laughable that people believe (usually implied) that the purpose of life is to work. I have read of stories of people bullshitting their way to get degrees by bribing unemployed professors which is also laughable or that people have degrees that have nothing to do with their job. Honestly, what's the point? I don't see what's so great ethically about bullshitting life. Is that really fulfilling or something to be proud of?

I would write more, but I think it's getting a bit long so I'll wait for responses.

Basically, the only work I am so-called "qualified" for are bullshit jobs that could already be automated by machines. As I explained somewhere above, I believe that if there are machines that can already do what I would be hired to do better, faster, more efficiently or a combination, then getting the job would be meaningless. I would rather get intrigued with my new found freedom learning stuff on the internet. So why don't I go back to school? Well I've already explained how much I hated school above. Also, what's the point of paying money for someone to tell you information, when you can easily look up the information and studying it in your own time? All for a piece of paper that implies I'm smart and "qualified" for something? I don't care for that intellectual bullshit to pretend I'm smart, sorry.

I'm actually content with my life and I'm finally happy, being able to do anything limited to the confines of a computer and the internet. That was all I've ever been able to do anyway.

Anyway, I refuse to be a part of this bullshit "work" thing by wasting my time to get paid to do things that technically don't have to be done by humans anymore, and I certainly don't feel bad about what I'm doing. In fact I feel I deserve this after all the bullshit I had to put up with. 

Would love to hear people's thoughts and opinions, and I'm sorry for the long post.
gpt
Apologies in advance if this comes off harsh. 

Sounds like you have severe mental trauma and thus qualify for welfare because you aren't useful to society because of your mental state and probably wouldn't function as an employee or entrepreneur. 

I think your CMV about not wanting to work because you find something philosophically wrong with that system is covering up why you're actually on welfare. It seems like you're not mentally capable of working and your worldview is extremely insular due to your background.  

Perhaps you should use the welfare taxpayers are paying and find a  therapist with whom you connect? It might do you some good to use them as a sounding board.