 So it's pretty discouraging to think that people in my generation, millennials, Gen Zers, we are faced with the reality that when we are older, we probably won't ever be able to retire. We're gonna have to work until the day we die in order to survive. It's just not going to be a possibility, it seems. And you know, there's a lot of people that share the same sentiment because a new poll released showed that almost 25% of people, nearly one in four people, they also think, yeah, they're probably never going to be able to retire. I mean, the previous generation, they would dream about what they're going to do when they retire. You know, travel the world, get a boat and sail it or just, you know, sit at home and watch Judge Judy reruns or whatever, you know, show they watch them. I don't know. But I mean, this is something that we're dealing with, like this is unique to our generation because we're reaching late stage capitalism where it nears its final conclusion. You know, it, it hollows out the state. It corrodes democracy and now it exploits people until the very day that they die. There's just no rest for them. So you can't read this poll and come away thinking, oh wow, isn't capitalism amazing? Because I mean, this isn't like a flaw of capitalism. This is a feature of capitalism and you can try to fix it and course correct. That's what I think the new deal did. But I mean, eventually capitalism does what it always does, exploits people to the point where, you know, they are commodified and their humanity is completely denied. So a normal person who sees a poll like this where one in four Americans nearly don't think they're ever going to be able to retire, you'd think, man, this really makes capitalism look bad. But if your Fox News, the way that they covered it, completely hilarious, they actually tried to spin it. And rather than make it seem like people working until they die is a really bad thing. They tried to convince you that it's actually awesome. Not even kidding. Not even kidding. Let's watch. Well, retirement inching closer to becoming a thing in the past for a lot of Americans. In fact, a recent poll finds nearly one in four people don't expect to ever leave the workforce. This, as a number of people working multiple jobs, also spiking. So why are so many people financially unfit to call it quits? Well, it's up for debate. So let's ask Trin Micro CIO, Donald Luskin, you know, these kind of polls are already always around, right? The bank rate does some things and other folks, but it's always alarming. 32% of people say they were tied before 865, which might be unrealistic, but 23% said never. Is that worrisome for you, Donald? Doesn't worry me personally. I guess I'm one of those people who plans never to retire. I mean, I gotta tell you, what do people do when they retire? How do you spend a day? I mean, is bowling that interesting? Is fishing that interesting? I mean, I happen to love my work. Why do I want to stop it? You know, it's not like it hurts. Why would I stop it? This is great. What a great country where we have the opportunity to keep working. What a miracle where our lives are long enough and we're healthy enough and mentally alert enough so that we don't have to retire like generations before us. This is a great blessing. You should embrace it. This is why you don't try to defend capitalism because you end up looking so foolish. This reminds me of Kirsten Gillibrand's line at the Democratic debate. I'm gonna paraphrase here, but she said something to the effect of, well look, there's a difference between capitalism and cronyism. No, there really isn't. It's an oxymoron. Capitalism is inherently cronyism. It's literally working exactly as it was designed to. I mean, this isn't surprising, but the people who benefit from capitalism, the few people who benefit, they have to do things like this. They have to look silly and try to convince us that working until you die is actually really cool because who wants to take time off for themselves? And thankfully, John Whitehouse on Twitter, he transcribed this, so I don't have to. I want to read through it again. This may seem redundant, but I have to go through what he said because it's so ridiculous. I'm honestly having trouble wrapping my head around what he said. It's that laughable. It doesn't worry me personally if people have to work until they die or one in four people feel as if they're never going to be able to retire. It doesn't worry me personally. I guess I'm one of those people who plans never to retire. I mean, I got to tell you, what do people do when they retire? You know, how do you spend a day? I mean, is bowling that interesting? Is fishing that interesting? I happen to love my work. Why do I want to stop it? It's not like it hurts. Why do I stop it? This is great. What a great country where we have the opportunity to keep working. I love how the underlying assumption is that people are choosing to work until the day that they die. It's not because, you know, they have no choice. It's because they're willingly choosing to work until they die and they love their job at Walmart so much, they're going to do it until they die. This is the assumption here. That's the assumption. How detached from reality are you? The normal American does not like their job, or even if they do like their job, they're still overworked. Like, you can enjoy your job, but be overworked. He doesn't get that. He's so detached, but he's a corporate executive. So to him, you know, exploiting workers is exactly what he has to do in order to increase profits for his company. So he has to promote this idea. He literally has a vested interest in getting us peasants to think, well, you know, working until we die is good. But there's more here. What a miracle where our lives are long enough and we're healthy enough and mentally alert enough so we don't have to retire like generations before us. This is a great blessing. You should embrace it. Wow. Why do you think more and more people are warming up to the idea of socialism? It's because capitalism has been exposed. We keep making tweaks to capitalism, you know, make it a little less rough around the edges so it works fairly well and, you know, we can at least live fairly good lives and get by. But capitalism does what it is designed to do. Take over everything, commodify everything. The New Deal era is over. A lot of people say that the New Deal saved capitalism. And I think that that's persuasive to an extent. But the New Deal era is over. It's been undone. The New Deal reforms have been undone. And if we get a president, Bernie Sanders, and you know, we do all of these things to reform capitalism, we'll all kind of forget about what capitalism is and why it's so problematic and harmful to our lives. But decades later, it's going to take over again and again and again because capitalism is like a virus. It corrupts everything it touches. Or to a point in American politics where capitalism has literally corrupted the democratic process itself. It corrupted democracy. Now if you want to get elected, you have to raise money and sell out to the capitalist forces. Capitalism ruins everything it touches. So this is why more and more I just can't even justify being a social democrat. If you don't end the threat of capitalism and eliminate it entirely, then you're just going to be back to the same situation where every couple of generations we're going to have to reform capitalism, but it's only going to be a temporary, you know, period of reform until once again it takes over and corrupts everything it touches again. There's got to be a better way for us to create this economic system to where we're not incentivized to literally destroy the planet and exploit people until the day they die. Like capitalism has one goal, one goal, and that is to make everything about money. That means you exploit workers and milk everything you possibly can out of them until there's nothing left until they are dead. And now you have clowns going on Fox News trying to rationalize that and sell it to us as if it's a good thing. What a joke. What a joke of a system we have. Capitalism is a fucking joke. And you know it's a joke when you have people now trying to convince you that it's really good that you're never going to be able to retire. See the difference between that guy and you is that he actually does have the choice. He can choose to make the choice to not retire because he has enough money to get by and to actually retire. But you don't have a choice. You may like work, but if you choose to retire someday, you may not have that chance. A lot of people don't believe that they're going to have that chance. And that's sad because our lives are short. So we shouldn't only be focusing on work and making money and getting exploited. We should be able to pursue our passions, travel, sculpt. I don't know. Play video games. New things that make us happy. Pet dogs. Our lives shouldn't just be driven by the need to increase money for our employer. It's not right. It's not fair. And I'm glad that people are finally starting to wake up to this and realize that it's the system. It's flawed. Capitalism is flawed. This clip is just, it's brilliant to me because it really shows how they're running out of arguments. They can't sell capitalism to young people anymore because this is what they have to resort to. They just look silly. And it's sad for them. You know, I feel bad for them because good luck. You're not going to keep convincing people to be in favor of an economic system that is killing them and killing the planet. It's just, it's not going to work. It's why people are moving away from capitalism and inching closer and closer towards socialism. It's because capitalism is really, really fucking flawed and it doesn't work. It's a killer. You could support the Humanist Report at patreon.com slash humanistreport. But trust me, I'd have way more supporters on Patreon if that was my podcast. Sad.