correct me if i’m wrong

From Schott’s Vocab on the NY Times:

Funemployed

Those enjoying unemployment.

Kimi Yoshino reported for The L.A. Times:

While millions of Americans struggle to find work as they face foreclosures and bankruptcy, others have found a silver lining in the economic meltdown. [The] happily jobless tend to be single and in their 20s and 30s. Some were laid off. Some quit voluntarily, lured by generous buyouts.

Buoyed by severance, savings, unemployment checks or their parents, the funemployed do not spend their days poring over job listings. They travel on the cheap for weeks. They head back to school or volunteer at the neighborhood soup kitchen. And at least till the bank account dries up, they’re content living for today.

According to Yoshino:

As frivolous as it sounds, funemployment is a statement about American society. Experts say it’s both a reflection of the country’s cultural narcissism — and attitudes of entitlement and self-centeredness — and a backlash against corporate America and its “Dilbert”-like work environment.

Yoshino is wrong. The “funemployment” phenomenon is a consequence of increased productivity in the American workforce and the acknowledgement that frivolous sacrifice is highly detrimental to a modern business economy. A large percentage of corporate America still acts like it’s the 1950s and that there’s some sort of nobility associated to a corporate job. Let me share a secret with you: jobs can be fun!

Traditional corporations are obsolete. With the advent of the Internet, organizing by physical proximity and geritocracy is no longer necessary. Maximal efficiency is established with alternative methods. The paragon in this context is the success of open source software, namely Linux. A loosely organized, decentralized, unpaid conglomerate of programmers were able to produce an operating system that has grown to rival that of its proprietary competitors. That would have seemed impossible 30 years ago.

Is there a new-found sense of entitlement and self-centeredness? Of course. Our parents and their parents have sacrificed their livelihoods so we can enjoy this wonderful world. If you have any doubt to that claim, try living in an age before modern medicine and the comforts of the first-world. While I haven’t experienced those lifestyles first-hand, I’ve been brought up knowing that a great deal has been given up for my happiness. Eating from the hand that feeds an old-school, inefficient corporate system is an injustice to their sacrifice.

Conversely, the upcoming business workers of the world have a responsibility to fulfill. Adapting to new technology and embracing a culture of transparency are required of any successful future graduates. With these tools in hand, we can work toward a world in which all jobs are creative for our children and their children.

Very interesting discussion on this topic at Hacker News.