For many of us, our work is our calling, and we have no desire or intention to “retire.”
However, between intergenenerational wealth and becoming eligible to receive old-age Social Security, some of us might find we have plenty of income and don’t need to be making more income. This is the position I am in personally with a paid-for house, plus housemates contributing to utilities and other shared costs, and no need for a car, and now receiving Social Security.
Furthermore, some of us as Degrowth advocates believe that it is healthiest for the planet if we don’t seek to make money unless we need to.
However, volunteering can end up being harmful to the younger generations, as young people need paid work. If everything is being taken care of by elders who can afford to volunteer, that’s not a very good thing for younger people who are trying to raise their families.
After percolating this for a while, I thought up some ways that an older person who has enough income can keep working, while supporting younger people’s needs and minimizing ecosystem destruction to the greatest degree possible.
• If we have a trade or profession, including giving public talks, we can accept gigs still but take a younger person along as an apprentice. Have the client pay the apprentice directly.
• We can accept gigs but have the client, audience, etc. remit the payment to a local mutual-aid organization of our choice, or to a national/global nonprofit that’s not super enmeshed in the nonprofit industrial complex. This is what I plan to do with my upcoming books.
• If the organization wishing your services is adamant that they have no budget and that the function must be performed by a volunteer, we can invite a young person to shadow us so at least they get some internship experience that can feed their future livelihood and career.
• If your calling happens to be in the form of working for an employer, then you could take your paycheck and use it to buy buildings and empty lots in your city (or put down-payments on same), and give those properties to young people, local businesses etc. But this probably won’t be a very frequent situation. It’s pretty easy to turn our calling into something that doesn’t involve a paycheck from an employer. And that frees up a paycheck job for a younger person who needs the money.
Volunteering is a beautiful thing, but I’ve come to feel that volunteering, especially elder volunteering, is prone to create the public perception that some kinds of work are not worth paying for, or that people can get away without paying for it.
And I do really feel like it displaces potential paying work that young people need.
Art, writing, teaching, classroom assisting come to mind. And ecological / native landscaping as well. But I’ve even seen it with carpentry and roofing, and even lawn mowing.