Dreaming...

[growing_older]

It was a joke! Wow, lots of stiffs...

Completely tasteless and frankly I don't believe you that it was intended as a joke. I think you are trying to wriggle out of the mess that you got yourself in.

Thanks for the gratuitous insult that anyone who doesn't go along with you is a "stiff"

I'm not amused. I'm incensed.

 

[Bankerwithabrain]

Completely tasteless and frankly I don't believe you that it was intended as a joke. I think you are trying to wriggle out of the mess that you got yourself in.

Thanks for the gratuitous insult that anyone who doesn't go along with you is a "stiff"

I'm not amused. I'm incensed.

Yeah- because the giant smiley face didn't suggest it was a joke from the beginning?

And wow, to be incensed that someone could compare the desire to retire early, and not have to work anymore, to being freed from a slavery? That is super inappropriate? Langston Hughes would have been upset?

 

[chinaco]

Look on the bright side... you have a job and a nice start on a nest egg and you are not 30 yet.

You are doing pretty good!

 

[explanade]

Sometimes, I think of work as a kind of indentured servitude.

 

[Sam]

Sometimes, I think of work as a kind of indentured servitude.

Is "indentured servitude" still legal today? Can I, today, go to a 3rd world country and sign up a servant? Just curious.

 

[growing_older]

Maybe you thrive on this?

What's offensive isn't whether you made a tasteless joke or not.

You do sincerely seem to believe that your aspirations for financial independence at an early age are akin to the Civil Rights movement and you personally are worthy of comparison with Dr King in your respective efforts. I guess I am speechless. Perhaps I should have let it go at that.

 

[explanade]

I'm not legally bound to my employer, so no, it's not literally indentured servitude. But psychologically, it feels like I can't break away.

I may be able to FIRE now but it feels like I need to hold off.

 

[Amethyst]

And a small head...or something....

I am a man with large dreams. They killed the last guy with one too

 

[Sam]

Removed.

 

[kyounge1956]

Yeah- because the giant smiley face didn't suggest it was a joke from the beginning?

Not entirely, and your reply of "For sure" to G_O's question of whether you were comparing yourself to Dr King had no smiley and, to me, appeared to be completely straight-faced.

And wow, to be incensed that someone could compare the desire to retire early, and not have to work anymore, to being freed from a slavery? That is super inappropriate? Langston Hughes would have been upset?

Now you're comparing yourself to a slave, are you? If that's a joke, it's in even worse taste than your previous effort. If you're serious, you need to think about what you're saying. Where is the bill of sale that says you are someone else's property? Who got paid for your work—you or your owner? When was the last time you were whipped because you didn't do what you were told, or didn't finish your work as fast as you were supposed to? Is it illegal for you to learn to read? Where is the law that says if you don't like being treated that way and try to escape, anyone who realizes you are a runaway is legally required to help your owner retrieve you? How about the ones that allow your children to be sold, your wife or daughter to be raped by the owner, and you or your son to be killed for trying to defend them?

If those things couldn't happen to you and you're not subject to those laws, then you aren't a slave. Based on your description of your circumstances, I would say not only are you not a slave, your situation isn't remotely comparable to slavery. You are belittling the experience of everyone who truly was a slave, who really was subject to those laws, and did actually did suffer those things, by likening your well-paid, legally-protected, free-to-come-and-go-at-your-own-choosing, self to them.

It's insulting. Stop it.

 

[haha]

It is insulting to anyone who knows anything about slavery, or especially to one has ancestral links to being enslaved, and utterly ridiculous. I hope this character retires soon so he cannot possibly have any effect or influence on any events of the world.

Ha

 

[Bankerwithabrain]

Wow.

As if I'm the first person to make the comparison that working is like indentured servitude?

This is what is wrong with America today. This stupid liberal PC BS.

I made my comment completely in jest. Work feels like indentured servitude. Clearly the Jews had it worse in Egypt and the blacks had it worse here!

But anyone who denies that sometimes working long hours, 24, 48 hour shifts does not sometimes feel like slavery is, for lack of a better word, stupid.

There have been thousands of articles that make this comparison.

You become a slave to money, a slave to your job, a slave to your debts.

I am not going to apologize or be PC about this. I said nothing wrong.

I like Martin Luther King Jr. as much as the next guy. But I am not going to play into this political correctness.

I'm pretty sure Chapelle made the exact same joke too.

 

[Bankerwithabrain]

The Song of the Wage-slave by Robert W. Service : The Poetry Foundation [poem] : Find Poems and Poets. Discover Poetry.

 

[lhamo]

If you aren't happy with your current situation, take your big brain and go do sometime positive and proactive about it. Like maybe quit complaining and go join Ramit Sethi's Earn1k program. Be forewarned, though -- he doesn't take kindly to/waste his time with people who aren't willing to make actual, regular steps toward pursing their dreams.

 

[harley]

Wow.

As if I'm the first person to make the comparison that working is like indentured servitude?

This is what is wrong with America today. This stupid liberal PC BS.

I made my comment completely in jest. Work feels like indentured servitude. Clearly the Jews had it worse in Egypt and the blacks had it worse here!

But anyone who denies that sometimes working long hours, 24, 48 hour shifts does not sometimes feel like slavery is, for lack of a better word, stupid.

There have been thousands of articles that make this comparison.

You become a slave to money, a slave to your job, a slave to your debts.

I am not going to apologize or be PC about this. I said nothing wrong.

I like Martin Luther King Jr. as much as the next guy. But I am not going to play into this political correctness.

I'm pretty sure Chapelle made the exact same joke too.

It's not political correctness. It's me telling you straight up, to your face, like a man, you have a crappy sense of humor and an incredibly overinflated ego. Everybody says something stupid sometimes. A responsible person sucks it up, says "oops, sorry", learns from it, and tries not to do it again. Give it a try sometime. I have to do it all the time, since my mouth is faster than my brain quite often.

We all know work can suck, that's why we're here. It's not what you meant, it's how you said it that was jerky.

If you go back and re-read the whole thread, you will see that people were responding thoughtfully, trying to be helpful, and giving their opinions (which you had asked for). It wasn't until you started whining about how hard your life was and then made a tasteless joke that people started giving you a hard time. So what's more likely, that we all misunderstood you, or that what you wrote was in poor taste? I'm going with the majority interpretation on this one.

 

[Sam]

It's not political correctness. It's me telling you straight up, to your face, like a man, you have a crappy sense of humor and an incredibly overinflated ego.

We need more people like you around here, Harley. Don't feel bad though if he comes back with some even more idiotic replies. People like himself really enjoy being insulted. Some how those have acquired a really thick smelly layer of skin.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I would have bet the worst job in the U.S. today is still better than the best "job" held by a slave, Bankerwithabrain, but maybe your job is really that horrible. But then you can always quit, can't you?

 

[BigNick]

Yeah, this PC BS sucks. Us white people are sooooo oppressed now we can't make uninformed comments about racial groups any more.