Why people in their 30s are ditching the mainstream workforce

At a good job you get to acquire and make use of your expertise, you gain seniority over time, people appreciate your contributions, and your compensation grows commensurate with your skill level, work output, and commitment to the company. How many "mainstream workforce" jobs fit that criteria today? Not a whole damn lot.

A typical job is like an abusive relationship. You'll be given responsibilities up the wazoo but little authority in directing your own work. You'll be asked to sacrifice for the good of the organization, who will in turn show you utterly zero loyalty. You'll watch as you contribute to significant revenue generation, without seeing a share of it or gaining significant equity. Employers do all of these things so often because as a rule (perhaps culturally) they are, frankly, power mad and greedy. By treating employees like disposable automatons incapable of making decisions it's much easier to deny them their due share of equity and compensation, which instead goes into the pockets of management, shareholders, and investors.

Of course, this is a classic "killing the goose that lays the golden eggs" scenario, and it does come with some serious consequences. It becomes much harder to acquire talent (a common refrain throughout all industries these days) and also much more difficult to hold onto it. When you treat employees poorly the best of them find it easiest to go somewhere else. And because working with other talented folks is often one of the most important work environment factors for talented and self-motivated people these dynamics often result in an escalating evaporation of talent and capability. Often this is invisible to management because it's so tempting to see workers as cogs. But then it starts to become harder and harder to execute on ambitious projects. What your org is capable of doing becomes diminished, and its business prospects shrink accordingly.

Most of the things that were indeed good about 9-5 jobs a generation ago are simply no longer the case - while all bad things about them are still in.

We can't hope to get a pension for the payroll taxes the company pays for us - everyone knows that nearly every single government pension program will be insolvent by the time someone who is 30 now, retires. We won't be like our parents.

We mostly can't hope to buy a good house in a mortgage for the salary we get, because the prices are now sky high and to buy a usable house you need enormous sacrifice AND be in the top 5% income - which means infinite rat race with a huge chance to fail, AND you don't stand a chance to make much money on it as it appreciates, like your dad did 30 years ago.

And almost no job will be life-long because companies stay big for a much shorter time than duration of one's career these days. You can't depend on your job really.

So in a way, every job is closer to consulting 30 years ago now than to full-time 30 years ago, wrt to security and perks it gives you. So why bother?

Only thing that's left for the majority of the people to gain happiness out of work is to do something they love doing, and that is almost impossible in a 9-5 workplace because they are toxic by design - they were invented to crush human spirit and make people replaceable robots.

And we can't even blame these people much - they aren't losing much because during their lifetimes, almost all 9-5 jobs existing today will be automated away - while most self-employish ones will probably stay. By quitting now, they make themselves better prepared for inevitable future.

Personally, i know only a few people who do 9-5 and are not poor (one of them is my ex). Most of the people i know never worked for hire and they are effectively retired ('i'll do something when i feel like it, and it promises a lot of money. maybe') by their 35-40 years.

* More opportunities from technology and information services in low capital business

* There's a self perpetuating cycle: the energy drink entrepreneur is more likely to use an independent solo lawyer who operates with just a laptop and co-working seat, whereas if he remained at Big Corp, they'd be using Big Old Prestigious Law Firm With High Overhead.

* The Risk Metrics are more favorable. When the 9-5 offered you basically a 30 year tenure and a pension at the end, it's a lot loonier to walk away from that.

The key here though is living a simpler life. If you want that big consumer lifestyle with a big mortgage and two German cars in the garage you will probably be at Big Corp. But even the rich entrepreneurs I know don't have this lifestyle, they live in a rental and pile all their capital into the business since they have to grow aggressively to defend from competition.