Money is fictional.
Yet it determines most aspects of our lives, including how many years we must work. Under society’s games, we must work until we’re old and grey — or worse. Meanwhile, Nature stands behind the curtain with a very different view of when we could retire.
She thinks the answer is 12 years.
Nature demands 10 hours per week.¹
That’s how much each working-age person (15–64) must work to provide everyone what they need. In other words, it’s the amount of work necessary to keep everyone alive and maintain a basic society.
Now, ten hours per week comes down to 25,480 hours over their working-age lives,² which corresponds to around 12 years of full-time work.³ In other words, if a person starts working at age 18, they could retire at 30. This wouldn’t give them a life of luxury, but it would give them — and everyone else — the freedom to do what they want with their lives. Whatever we do, the choice would be ours — whether we lie on the couch, work on projects, or spend time with family and friends.
Let me say that again: from a physical perspective, we could retire by 30. Meanwhile, in fictopistan, most governments only permit you to retire four decades later. As such, our technology enables an abundance of spare time and a good quality of life — but our economic system takes most of it away.
In practice, it’s unclear how close we can actually get to the physical limit. But one thing seems clear: the margin of error can’t be that large.⁵
In other words, there is a life after work.
But it’s being stolen from us.
Technical note: the 12-year estimate assumes productivity and the working-age population remain constant over time.
For the technically minded readers, the 12-year estimate assumes that productivity remains at 2019 US levels and that the percentage of the population doing the necessary work does not change over time. Changes in demographics — i.e. young and old in the population — could impact the latter, however, it’s impact is likely negligible for the foreseeable future.⁴
Footnotes
¹According to my estimates, ten hours per week is the time per working-age person (age 15–65) required to provide everyone in the US population with a living-income worth of goods and services. For details, see A 10-hour Workweek is Enough (To Satisfy Everyone’s Needs).
²The necessary work an individual must perform throughout their lifetime was estimated by multiplying 10 hours per week with 52 weeks per year, and the number of years they must perform the work — i.e. the number of years they would be between ages 15 and 64. Concretely, 10*52*(64–15) = 25,480 hours.
³The 12 years of necessary work is based on taking the work an individual must perform throughout their lifetime and dividing it over 40-hour work weeks. Specifically, assuming they work 52 weeks per year, we get: 25,480 hours / (40 hours per week * 52 weeks per year) = 12.25 years.
⁴From a physical perspective, an aging US population is estimated to require only 2 more hours per week in the coming 80 years (meaning 12 hours instead of 10). Consequently, population aging likely not going to be a (physical) problem in the US for the foreseeable future. For details, see Population Aging is Not a Real Problem in the US (Not Today, and Not For At Least 80 Years).
You Might Also Like
- Land of the Free? 88% of Americans Are Less Free Than They Could Be
- Society is Built on Games — and We Should Play a Better One
- A 10-hour Workweek is Enough (To Satisfy Everyone’s Needs)
Support my Work
My mission is to free humanity from unnecessary toil — and expose why we aren’t free because of how we work.
- Buy me a coffee
- Join the discussion on Discord and vote on upcoming topics
- Stay informed and subscribe to my newsletter.
