At some point during my college career I learned about the Rat Race and was propelled to discard my desire to climb the corporate ladder and decided to live a life similar to jfoucher (How I live on $7000 per year). However, after living frugally for a couple years I saved up enough money and decided to travel the world. Fast forward to today - after witnessing first hand the lives of those less fortunate while traveling in SE Asia I realized how self-centered I was to sit out of the "Rat Race" and meander along the road of my meager existence while there were other people wishing they had the knowledge, opportunity, and capacity to live and succeed in our society. There are people all over this planet that don't possess the means necessary to make impactful changes in others' lives, let alone their own, and so I asked myself: What if I took my determination and drive (clearly demonstrated in my previously frugal lifestyle habits) and applied those characteristics to actions that might benefit other people? Would those actions then be better, or more worthy, than the actions of squeaking out a living on $7,000? Personally, I decided they would be and have since then devoted myself to helping bring about change in this world.
I'm not saying everyone should view their life this way, but I understand what the author is describing and I have went through the internal struggle of trying to decide what to do with my life. Recently, I decided to go back into the world of the Rat Race and try to make the lives of those around me and myself better (building interesting software, spreading joy and wisdom, raising awareness of certain issues, etc.). I don't unconsciously spend money on things I don't need but I do if it deems fit. More over, I don't think you need to have a garden or be a homebody to live frugally.
I hope other smart, determined people don't take the route of sitting idly by the side as hoards of unaware, materialistic consumers perpetuate a system of greed and excess.
I pretty much spend my time trying to "educate" unaware, materialistic consumers. I've affected more people than I can count (those who've told me) and presumable more beyond those (who didn't tell me).
So I have a blog, a book, a forum, and now a wiki. There's not really a rat race option for what I do, but if there was, maybe I'd take it.
Incidentally, I don't really have a problem with people using the freedom they've gained from stepping off the treadmill to do nothing. If someone wants to use their freedom to become a "beach bum" I have no problem with that.
As someone who has started down the path of growing a passive income stream, your article really resonated with me. I found myself nodding along to the points you were making, since I have had similar thoughts many times before. But the parent comment made a good point: that money can be a powerful mechanism for shaping the world you want to see. I don't know the answer, but I will have time to think about it as I build out an income stream to support my living expenses.
Yes, money can be an agent of change. Time also. Some may do best working in a traditional structure. Others do better on their own. I helped found a nonprofit organization during my first year of "retirement". However, I found that I could be far more effective on my blog talking directly to people instead of spending time writing grant proposals, so I quit the nonprofit.
Out of curiosity, what does/will your passive income stream consist of? I have recently recognized how important passive income is to enabling my goal of fewer hours of labor, but I am frankly new to the idea and just getting started.
Dividend growth stocks, like PG, MCD, PEP, KO, LMT, KMB, WM, etc. They don't swing too wildly with the market (they even stayed steady during the recent down/upswings), and they generally increase their dividends at a faster rate than inflation. It's a sort of "get rich slowly" scheme, but it's fun to see a growing share of my expenses being handled by passive income.
I'm not saying everyone should view their life this way, but I understand what the author is describing and I have went through the internal struggle of trying to decide what to do with my life. Recently, I decided to go back into the world of the Rat Race and try to make the lives of those around me and myself better (building interesting software, spreading joy and wisdom, raising awareness of certain issues, etc.). I don't unconsciously spend money on things I don't need but I do if it deems fit. More over, I don't think you need to have a garden or be a homebody to live frugally.
I hope other smart, determined people don't take the route of sitting idly by the side as hoards of unaware, materialistic consumers perpetuate a system of greed and excess.