Don’t Think of it as Anti-Work

Think of it as withholding your labor from capital.

I’m happy to do work. I am happy to cook and clean and walk the dog. I am happy to create and bake. I am happy to write for my pauper’s cut. But capital does not deserve my skills right now. The biggest lie ever told was selling this system as capitalism at all. Imperialism and puritanism wrapped up in the barest trappings of supply and demand. Opting out is a perfectly legitimate form of protest.

You know what works just as well as opting out though? Shirking. Stay in your job as long as you can. Collect your pay check. Make them fire you. I’m not advocating breaking the law, though your boss will probably act like you have. There is no productivity law. There is a backlog of wages unpaid for productivity though, so folks should for certain spend some time relaxing on the company dime. Remember in most states you can’t collect unemployment if you quit or are fired for cause, so if you can skate by on the bare minimum for long enough you may even be able to have some income after.

Whether you choose to opt-out or coast through is entirely up to you and your circumstances. I don’t have kids to feed or any particular obligations forcing me to work, though I do rely on my husband’s paycheck and he relies on me to cook meals. Fighting a system that is built to keep us from supporting each other requires a certain amount of acceptance that not everyone can protest in the same way.