# Is there a way to live without working? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 14, 2002, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110 "2002-05-14T23:35:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![LibrarySpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@LibrarySpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LibrarySpy)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2014, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/81 "2014-03-26T19:12:18Z")
If I’ve learned anything from Bob Newhart and Hannibal, it’s that high-achieving psychiatrists can make a lot of money doing a minimal amount of work. So maybe you’re on the right path. Whatever the path though, we’re glad you’re still out there and posting. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/82 "2014-04-04T04:03:22Z")
Wow… somebody resurrects my 12-year-old thread, a bunch of discussion ensues, then I post and discussion virtually dies out… I feel like my own threadkiller! I forgot to mention that as part of my “fake it till you make it” philosophy, I was hoping med school would be like boot camp, _forcing_ me to transform from the “lethargic, lazy bum” I described myself as in the OP into a type-A, alpha male, on-top-of-my-game, real mover-and-shaker type. I was hoping there would be so much work, I would have no choice but to completely reinvent myself. That didn’t happen, and in fact I had some academic difficulties in med school, though I did manage to graduate on time. Just a warning to anyone out there in the shoes I was in who might be thinking of doing the same thing. > [@LibrarySpy](#): > > If I’ve learned anything from Bob Newhart and Hannibal, it’s that high-achieving psychiatrists can make a lot of money doing a minimal amount of work. So maybe you’re on the right path. > > Whatever the path though, we’re glad you’re still out there and posting. I’m a bit reluctant to admit this, even behind the wall of internet pseudonymity, because no one wants there to be doctors who don’t give a crap, but, while no residency is a cakewalk, if there’s one specialty of medicine that’s particularly well-suited to being able to just “phone it in,” psychiatry is probably it. You can get a job working 9-to-5, no evenings or weekends, doing 15-minute med checks, refilling desperate housewives’ Zoloft, for $200k a year. Not that those are my post-residency career plans… :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/83 "2014-04-04T13:26:06Z")
Mind you, I’m not endorsing this, but there is another option. Steal the money. Banks, race tracks. money trains, gold reserves, casinos, drug dens – the sky’s the limit! High risk, but mitigated by the fact that if you get caught and sent to prison, you don’t have to work either. Win win! ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/84 "2014-04-04T17:12:25Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > Wow… somebody resurrects my 12-year-old thread, a bunch of discussion ensues, then I post and discussion virtually dies out… I feel like my own threadkiller! > > I forgot to mention that as part of my “fake it till you make it” philosophy, I was hoping med school would be like boot camp, _forcing_ me to transform from the “lethargic, lazy bum” I described myself as in the OP into a type-A, alpha male, on-top-of-my-game, real mover-and-shaker type. I was hoping there would be so much work, I would have no choice but to completely reinvent myself. That didn’t happen, and in fact I had some academic difficulties in med school, though I did manage to graduate on time. Just a warning to anyone out there in the shoes I was in who might be thinking of doing the same thing. I think we were hoping that over the past decade, you had figured out a way to live without working. Instead, you apparently chose one of the most difficult career paths there is.☹ ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/85 "2014-04-12T16:45:31Z")
I guess I can’t emphasize enough how I came to the conclusion that the only solution to the problem describe in the OP, was for me to fundamentally change who I was as a person. I thought if I could force myself to genuinely transform into a hard-driving, type-A badass, I would genuinely enjoy medicine and not wanting to work would no longer be a problem. I thought it would take every last bit of wherewithal I had to get _into_ medical school–taking biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics, taking the MCAT, writing admission essays, and going on interviews would be about the most I could muster, and metaphorically speaking, with my last ounce of strength I’d hurl myself over the finish line of medical school admission, before collapsing from exhaustion. From there, however, having gotten into medical school, “the system” would drag me along and force me to become the aforementioned hard-driving, type-A badass. That didn’t happen, but it’s what I was thinking at the time. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/86 "2014-04-12T18:25:51Z")
Well, I guess it’s like the old joke about “what do you call the med school graduate with the lowest GPA…” …Doctor ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/87 "2014-04-12T19:43:55Z")
I figured this out a long time ago actually. You have to work hard for a little while. Then, invest it for interest, then live off the interest, and you’ll never need to work again. At 1%, you need 10 mil to have an income of $100k/year. Easy. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/88 "2014-04-12T19:45:03Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Well, I guess it’s like the old joke about “what do you call the med school graduate with the lowest GPA…” > > …Doctor I heard a similar one: What do you call a med school dropout? A dentist. ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/89 "2014-04-13T14:38:56Z")
I was thinking, if only it was the nineteenth century then the OP could roam from town to town peddling snake oil to the rubes. And now I see he’s gone into psychiatry! I don’t know why any of you think a life of crime could be effective. Crime is a lot of hard work and carries great risk. Burglary is unremunerative, what with all those cheap Chinese DVD players out there reducing the profits of fencing. Fraud or embezzlement require you to already be in a profitable position. Mugging has bad hours. Receiving stolen goods, fencing, requires substantial investment and extensive business and criminal contacts. There’s no profit in arson or assault or criminal damage or rape or murder. I suppose you could be a hitman, but again you need extensive criminal contacts to get into that, and a predilection for violence not found in most people, including me. Drug dealing is meant to be profitable, but it’s a business and you need a supplier, so making a profit means being able to sell it for more than you buy it for, which means you need more knowledge of the drug trade than your customers, and even then you’ll always have your suppliers trying to eat into your margins. Trust me, I’ve given extensive thought to the most efficient way of avoiding effort, and unless you’re already rich crime just isn’t the way to go. Nor, incidentally, is investment or education or hard work, or any other form of “jam tomorrow” wishful thinking. I mean yes, it may well pay off, but it’s hard work. To me, doing twenty years of hard work through the best part of your life so you can relax thereafter seems like a stupid idea. You know, if your aim is leisure. If your aim is achievement, fine. > [@Arcite](#): > > I guess I can’t emphasize enough how I came to the conclusion that the only solution to the problem describe in the OP, was for me to fundamentally change who I was as a person. I thought if I could force myself to genuinely transform into a hard-driving, type-A badass, I would genuinely enjoy medicine and not wanting to work would no longer be a problem. But that would leave you with the new problem of being a type-A badass. Let me tell you, about ten years ago I was probably a bit younger than you, but it a similarly lethargic boat. I reached exactly the opposite conclusion: that I should stay exactly as I was. I don’t think I’ve entirely succeeded on that score, but I am just as idle as I ever was. > [@](#): > > I thought it would take every last bit of wherewithal I had to get _into_ medical school–taking biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics, taking the MCAT, writing admission essays, and going on interviews would be about the most I could muster, and metaphorically speaking, with my last ounce of strength I’d hurl myself over the finish line of medical school admission, before collapsing from exhaustion. From there, however, having gotten into medical school, “the system” would drag me along and force me to become the aforementioned hard-driving, type-A badass. That didn’t happen, but it’s what I was thinking at the time. I did some higher education a few years ago. I didn’t have any aims for it, not to gain employment and certainly not to be beaten into shape. I did it with the Open University because they don’t require you to pay, if you’re unemployed, and don’t require to turn up in person or to have any existing qualifications. As I had no money, no transport and no qualifications that seemed quite convenient. Opening higher education to those underserved by traditional education was the original stated purpose when the government set up the Open University, after all. I did what would have been the first half of a degree, but I didn’t finish it. It was too much like hard work, but also too easy. I don’t like doing work, so I would put it all off to the last minute then scrawl out some bullshit. The fact that this almost total lack of effort still yielded satisfactory results just reinforced my pre-existing contempt for formal education. Finding that I was enduring rather than enjoying it, and that it was very tedious, I decided to give up. On the plus side, after I passed the Latin course I took without learning a single thing I went back to the text book and actually learned how to read it. I like learning, I don’t like being required to learn things. Like the OP I was meant to be gifted in Junior school, but I preferred avoiding work. My earliest memories are mostly of being told off for avoiding work. When I was about three, being told off for painting on my hands instead of the paper, being told off for messing about in the playground instead of delivering a message, suchlike. At my infant school there were a series of colour-coded cards to teach various aspects of simple maths, and by the end of the three years of infant school I had skillfully avoided doing any of them. To save themselves from embarrassment they skipped me to the test at the end of the first colour, and then all the other colours. So they decided I was clever. Thus through Junior school I was gifted. Then, come secondary school, I was now old enough to think for myself and realised I didn’t particularly like being around people, passionately hated anyone, such as a teacher, trying to establish any authority over me, and that all the stuff they were doing at secondary school was stuff I passionately hated, like Drama; Cookery; Art, Technology and Design; French; PE; that sort of thing. Even the maths had become both far more strict about things like showing your working, while also regressing to stuff we’d done at my primary school about two years earlier. At that point I decided that I would like to play truant on quite a consistent basis. From that point onwards I have assiduously cultivated idleness and leisure. Luckily I was blessed with negligent family, and was stubborn enough to front out the local government. That got me to the point where I could, as an Englishman, claim the benefits I’m legally entitled to. I have been unfortunately enough to suffer periods of employment, generally pleasingly low-intensity, but I would certainly never work in a warehouse again. So I can take up my time with latin, and playing the guitar, and cycling around the local countryside, and wanking in the middle of the day, and other enjoyable pursuits. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/90 "2014-04-13T16:49:06Z")
#7 seems like your best bet. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/91 "2014-04-13T18:02:24Z")
BTW You might like the book “Doing Nothing” by Tom Lutz, I read it a few years ago and really liked it. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/92 "2014-04-14T03:21:47Z")
I was going to suggest living in a van, but I guess psychiatry would do. ---
**Author:** ![Waymore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Waymore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waymore)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/93 "2014-04-14T03:44:24Z")
Reading is thread reminded me of this.[http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/alpha-consumer/2011/10/19/the-secret-to-living-well-on-11000-a-year](http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/alpha-consumer/2011/10/19/the-secret-to-living-well-on-11000-a-year) ---
**Author:** ![ahronos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@ahronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ahronos)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2015, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/94 "2015-11-25T18:35:16Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > I first thought of posting this in General Questions, but I soon realized the topic was too trivial, and besides, it’s largely tongue-in-cheek anyway. > > I’ve always been a lethargic, lazy bum, even since early childhood. I was labeled a “gifted child” in elementary school, but I always had poor study skills and no motivation. I was never a good student, but I made it through high school, finished college with a major in a “useless” subject (music), and am now somewhat gainfully employed as a Systems Analyst within the IT organization of a large corporation. I stumbled into this job because I had a knack for computer programming, but the job has turned out to involve almost no programming and lots of, well, analysis. I can’t stand what I call “businesslike” work, so I’m not really fulfilling my duties, and consequently I fear that I may eventually lose my job for poor performance. If that happens, I’ll really be in hot water, since I’ll have proven that I can’t handle a job in the IT field, and I have no other marketable skills to fall back on; meanwhile, I’m currently supporting myself and, thanks to student loans and a car loan, still have a net worth of about -$10,000. My parents are separated and neither of them makes much money, so I can’t blithely move back in with one of them. Because of all this, I’ve started doing some deep thinking about what I should really be doing with my life. > > The problem is, I hate working at all, always have, and as far as I know, always will. I have never found within myself a desire (which apparently many other people have) to “get out there in the world” and “achieve” or “accomplish great things.” Thoughts of being a successful doctor, lawyer, businessman, teacher, carpenter, beekeeper, or whatever, have never appealed to me at all. Instead, what I enjoy is merely sitting around the house, pursuing hobbies and other trivial household activities that don’t involve striking out into the “big bad world out there” for any length of time. For as long as I can remember, I have had this fantasy of possessing independent means, and being able to sleep in every day of the week, stay home and read, garden, watch movies, play golf or tennis, maybe travel once in a while, etc.–basically, live my whole life as a retired person. I just don’t want to be retired _from_ anything. 🙂 > > Because most of the people I know, including my coworkers, seem to genuinely _want_ to do their jobs, I’ve begun thinking: do these people really have to be here? Is it possible they know something I don’t know, that they work only because they want to, and there might be some way of getting by without working? I know there are ways of getting by without working, but I don’t think any of them will work for me. Here’s my complete list of ways to attain the wealth necessary to live comfortably without working, along with my thoughts on each item: > > 1. Win the lottery > Well, the odds are so poor that I might spend my life pouring thousands of dollars into the lottery and still never win, while the jackpots I paid into go to trailer-park-dwelling bar crawlers. Therefore, I’m not going to waste my money and time playing it at all. > > 2. Inherit > Not going to happen for me. None of my relatives are even nominally wealthy; most probably don’t even have a significant positive net worth. > > 3. Work hard at succeeding in the business world, and retire early > This is probably the most “realistic” option on the list, in that most people who want to do it badly enough probably could. To my knowledge, it can be done one of two ways: a) Start one’s own business, build it up to a high level of value, and sell it off, or b) work for someone else’s company, climb the corporate ladder, become a manager, receive stock options, etc. The chief problem here is that this plan would probably take, from start to finish, at least 15 years, and while the rest of my life would be carefree, those 15 years would be full of extremely hard work, which is exactly what I want to avoid! Then I’d be 40 by the time I was able to start my “real life.” Also, this plan would require Jack Welch-style business acumen, which I simply do not have. > > 4. Succeed at a high-profile entertainment or creative endeavor (movie star, rock star, professional athlete, best-selling popular writer) > The problem here is that attaining wealth in these fields requires a great deal of luck. There are scads of actors and pop musicians out there, but very few ever are admitted to the inner circle of Hollywood or release a record that ends up going platinum. Writing is something I could actually see myself trying–it’s an activity I’ve always enjoyed–but again, in order to become independently wealthy, I’d have to make the bestseller lists, and that requires a large measure of luck; there’s no guarantee that I’d ever get published at all, even in a lifetime of trying. > > 5. Win some sort of personal-injury lawsuit or collect long-term disability benefits from my employer > Well, there’s nothing physically wrong with me right now, so I’d have to either intentionally get injured or fake an injury or disability. While I’m lazy and could be considered immoral in that sense, I do have scruples and would never do something so dishonest. > > 6. Invest, with a stellar rate of return > This would require Warren Buffet-like financial acumen (cf. 3 above), which I have heard cannot be learned: you either have it or you don’t, and I don’t. Also, even with a spectacular rate of return, it would be many years before I had enough money to safely, permanently quit my day job. > > 7. Be a househusband/stay-at-home dad > Though this is not technically “not working,” I could actually see myself doing this. While I dislike work in the traditional sense of going out into the world and exchanging your services for a wage or salary, I don’t mind household- or family-related work. I would be perfectly happy to stay home and cook, clean, do laundry, and shuttle the kids around, while my wife worked outside the home. The problem with this idea is that my marriage prospects are currently nil, and I wouldn’t expect them to increase if I started advertising my desire to do this–I know most women find men with no desire to work unappealing. > > That’s all I can think of. Is there anything else? Some secret yet perfectly legal and foolproof way to manipulate the stock market and obtain large sums of money in a short amount of time? Some time machine with which I could peek into the future and discover tomorrow’s winning lottery numbers? I must emphasize that what I desire is not wealth per se, but independent means; not a mansion and Mercedes, just a split-level and a Chevy, as long as I don’t have to work for them. I have often fantasized about the existence of what you might call a “non-working military base/monastery” which, like a regular military base or monastery, would support you and provide you with the basic necessities of life (i.e., food, clothing, and shelter,) but instead of requiring you to work there in return, would simply allow you to do as you please, spending your days reading, going for jogs/hikes, watching movies, maybe cultivating a garden. I would join in a second, but I don’t suppose such a place exists. > > So that’s it. To recap, my question is: Is there any way for an average joe with no inheritance or brilliant business plan to survive (and ideally, not just survive, but maintain a relatively comfortable, American middle-class lifestyle) without working? > > (To preempt the “you’ve got a bad attitude” replies: I am half-joking here. But then, being half-joking also means you’re half-serious.) You forgot to mention the gin in the bottle. That’s always been my big hope. Well you might want to google search for women who look for men with your criteria. Don’t take it for granted that no woman out there will want you for the way you are. But consider whether you’ll want a woman like that. Realistically speaking though, maintaining an american middle class lifestyle without working, sounds to say the least futuristic, that is if future turns out well, which is also somehow unlikely. Anyway I’m very similar to you in the way you think and feel and I’ve been trying almost all my adult life to succeed it unsuccessfully. I’ve done a bit of a way though, as I managed to travel almost constantly for 24 years, working as little as possible in odd jobs. I never expected to live a mid standard of life, although I managed to do so for short periods. However now that things got harder and I got older, I seriously struggle to survive. Not conforming with the whole situation can be a way to deal with it. What ever you do, good luck. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2015, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/95 "2015-11-25T18:45:28Z")
Didn’t read this whole thread - which appears to have been resurrected at least a couple of times. But in my job I regularly encounter folk who do not work, but are supported by someone else. This ranges from young suburban adults who spend their days playing video games on mom and dad’s sofa, to the 50-yr old guy who has never worked, but has been supported by a string of women. There are large numbers of people who live communally, with one or more of them receiving some kind of check - social security, worker’s comp, VA disability, etc. It has long since ceased to amaze me how many folk are able to exist off limited income/benefits. Of course, the quality of such a life is not what most of us would aspire to. And I often think that the effort involved in such an existence is more than it would take to simply work! But IME, in the vast majority of instances where an adult is not working, someone is supporting/enabling that lifestyle. ---
**Author:** ![IDtenT\_Error](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@IDtenT\_Error](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IDtenT_Error)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2015, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/96 "2015-11-26T18:15:49Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > So that’s it. To recap, my question is: Is there any way for an average joe with no inheritance or brilliant business plan to survive (and ideally, not just survive, but maintain a relatively comfortable, American middle-class lifestyle) without working? Gigolo/Con-man. Are you reasonably attractive, and can you fake attraction to some 70 year old rich widow long enough to either steal her money or wait 'til she croaks and leaves it to you in her will? ETA: Just noticed this is a 13 yo zombie. So, OP, how did your career go? ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2015, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/97 "2015-11-26T19:39:55Z")
> [@IDtenT\_Error](#): > > Gigolo/Con-man. Are you reasonably attractive, and can you fake attraction to some 70 year old rich widow long enough to either steal her money or wait 'til she croaks and leaves it to you in her will? > > ETA: Just noticed this is a 13 yo zombie. So, OP, how did your career go? He died from a venereal disease he caught from being a gigolo ten years ago. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/98 "2015-11-28T15:47:50Z")
I think this thread is a classic! Such a thought-provoking OP, then such a surprising outcome for the OP. The ideas and thoughts of the posters are really great-though almost all come down to working hard for at least a while or lowering one’s standards a lot… Personally, I think living in a van is the best strategy so far. Though those vans I have seen tend to be really really dirty, in those cases standards have fallen too far. So, to the OP-great thread and a wonderful follow-up. As a seasoned creator of crash and burn threads, yours is quite the opposite. Incredibly long-lasting and still short enough to read through. Good job! ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2015, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/99 "2015-11-28T22:06:43Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > There are large numbers of people who live communally, with one or more of them receiving some kind of check - social security, worker’s comp, VA disability, etc. It has long since ceased to amaze me how many folk are able to exist off limited income/benefits. Of course, the quality of such a life is not what most of us would aspire to. And I often think that the effort involved in such an existence is more than it would take to simply work! I agree, in my line of work I have a lot of patients who subsist off of SSI/SSDI, from which they get less than like $1000 per month. I always wonder how they do it, especally given how much money they spend on beer, cigarettes, and pot. > [@IDtenT\_Error](#): > > ETA: Just noticed this is a 13 yo zombie. So, OP, how did your career go? I was a bit late to the game in interviewing for jobs post-residency (naturally, I don’t want to run my own practice, as that would entail running a business–see the OP,) so I decided to do locum tenens work for a while. I’m currently doing inpatient psychiatry, making plenty of money, at a job that’s not exactly easy, but at least fairly straightforward to do. I’ve also continued to interview for permanent positions, but I’ve been fairly picky about location and income, so I havent accepted one yet. > [@rbroome](#): > > So, to the OP-great thread and a wonderful follow-up. As a seasoned creator of crash and burn threads, yours is quite the opposite. Incredibly long-lasting and still short enough to read through. > > Good job! Thanks. I’m impressed with this thread, too. I couldn’t have done it better if I tried! ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2015, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110/100 "2015-11-28T23:36:47Z")
If you ever get fed up with psychiatry, you could make a handsome living by starting threads. Once you figure out how to make it pay, of course. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-live-without-working/109110.md?page=6)