this post was submitted on 31 May 2026
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I'm from the EU. To further elaborate, I've noticed that a lot of people around my age (25-30) don't trust that they will ever see retirement and thus don't invest in the state's retirement plan. These are people who aren't regularly employed so they pay the minimal amount of their salary to the state which is required, which when they retire results in the minimum amount of pension they can receive.

To counteract this they invest in the stock market to have a nest egg for their retirement and think that this is a much stabler and safer option than the retirement fund that they are legally required to pay. The reason being is that they distrusts this pension will ever be payed out or that they will ever even reach retirement. Is this sort of thinking reactionary? Is taking advantage of the capitalist system to better your own material conditions opportunistic?

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[–] Commiejones@lemmygrad.ml 14 points 3 weeks ago

Not trusting the bourgeois state to honor pension contributions is not reactionary. Trusting the capitalist casino is not reactionary per say but it is stupid. Saying "fuck you all, I'm gonna get mine" is reactionary.

Reactionary thinking is the desire to turn back the status quo to a idealized past. The reactionary retirement plan is to have lots of offspring that will survive and thrive enough to take care of you when you get old.

Basically these people have "player character" syndrome. Its individualism taken to a delusional degree and while not necessarily "reactionary" it is idealistic and self interested.