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Comment by friendly_chap | Hacker News Reader

Is this a feel good piece for the working class? Don't get me wrong - I have no experience with getting rich overnight (not that I'm not trying).

However, going back to employment seems like an utter waste of a millionaire's time - I have loads of plans which would make the world a better place, for example: launching an incubator/hacker camp for troubled kids in the poor area where I'm from. I only need maybe 1 or 2 millions to do that.

Why would I go back to working for a company where I have way less power to change basically anything, really?

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If you launch an incubator/hacker camp for troubled kids, you'll realise you need a legal structure (company, nonprofit, whatever) and some employees. You want to control what's done with your money, and the structure needs a director/ceo/chairperson, so that should probably be you - right?

Congratulations, you now have a job and you belong to the ranks of "millionaires who didn't quit working for long" :)

I don't think this is suggesting that people would go back to conventional employment, more that they're not going to just kick back and relax for the rest of their lives. You're example of going to do something useful would still count as work to most people.

For most people I know, when they say they wish they had enough money that they didn't have to work, what they mean is that they wish they had enough money to escape the wage-labor relationship with an employer.

Indeed. There are plenty of things I could be doing, such as writing books or teaching martial arts, but there's not enough money in these activities to pay for food and accommodation.

I see. I think the two are really not the same. One is essentially total freedom, the other (conventional employment) is on a scale of 'do as you are told' - 'you 've got some say in how things are being run'.

Freedom in capitalism is financial independence. Yet most will never be free. Isn't that a failure? We can do whatever we want! Oh but we can't afford it.

> However, going back to employment seems like an utter waste of a millionaire's time

It's also a blocked opportunity for someone else. For every millionaire who clings on to his senior executive job even though he doesn't need to, there's a non-millionaire who is not getting that senior executive promotion this year.

I have a similar (possible) goal when I hit financial independence. I would love to run a non-profit that helps level out diversity in tech by teaching kids how to use a computer, program, and hack. I was very lucky to grow up with my own computer in my room.

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