Here's a little bit of my story guys
I'm quite frankly feeling guilty on a relatively regular basis, thinking that it's truly disrespectful to do that, that I'm not useful to society, that I'm here enjoying my free time way too much, spending most of my time reading, going to museums, playing games, partying here and there, writing, watching stuff, painting, gardening on my balcony, thinking about life yada yada yada…but apart from that? I've been really happy these last 5 years:
I'm on disability (which amounts to something like 1000 dollars per month), in a Western European country, and I don't have to pay a rent as I partly own a really nice 100 sqm appartment in a very populated city (my father bought it, and he gave me “shares” of it (it's an equivalent to what you guys call LLC in the USA,”Limited Liability Company”) so although 90% of the appartment belongs to him, he's happy to let me live there on my own, allowing me some independance despite my disability, while he lives in his main, much bigger house in a different city…so I basically manage to live a very simple life, without being in the “red” financially speaking, but I don't really earn anything. I worked very hard to get a master's degree in the past, AND I've worked very hard…no, I fought very hard to try to stay in the workplace for a very long time…but it just didn't work, companies don't want someone who's a burden due to adjusting requirements. I've had my fair share of hard times because of that, like tons of other people on the autistic spectrum do. The weirdest thing about it is you'd have a VERY hard time finding out that I'm on the spectrum in my everyday life: it mostly shows when I'm under pressure, which is why it's so hard for people like me in the workplace.
Anyways: If I remove the feeling of guilt and inadequacy from the equation, looking at these past 5 years…I've actually been really happy because despite earning very little, I haven't been in trouble at all financially, since I have no rent to pay. Again, my life is simple, without anything truly extraordinary happening, without OMG big surprises, but it's smooth sailing and I'm never bored. I'm also very active socially speaking, and that's a big plus. It's still true that I'm depending on the system however, which means I probably have no right EVER to complain about it.
Family-wise, I'm incredibly lucky: my parents are getting old (65-69) but we get along really well, same for my brother and my sisters. I also happen to have a lot of really good friends who don't really care about me being in the workforce or not, and there's very little judgement (although it is probably due to me having a disability (I have aspergers) ).
So, bottomline: I'm “poor” in the sense that I own nothing, that it's very difficult for me to be in the workforce (I tried tons of times, believe me), and that I was lucky enough to have parents that would help me out in this situation, but I'm also fortunate since I can live a decent life thanks to not having to pay a rent and thanks to the social security system in the country I lvie in.
So, is all of this wrong? What do you think?
A little message to all of you guys reading this
Also, I hope you're all doing ok, and if not, that you will. I wish you the best things in life, I know it's tough out there. I also hope that this message is a reminder that your value as a human being is not linked to your job, it took a long time for me to understand that, but I guess I had no choice but to get it after such a journey. I basically had to either start viewing the world differently (meaning not with a systemic approach, but with a global, universal approach) or I probably would have turned out quite cynical…thank god, the opposite happened, and I'm actually a much more tolerant and less judgemental person that I've ever been in the past, so I guess that's something.