From our other sites
The story
A thread titled “Why do these so-called NEETs never work?” appeared on 5ch’s “Nanademo Jikkyo G” board, sparking a back-and-forth over employment and personal freedom. The thread’s original poster held firm to the position that “if you can’t explain your reason for not working, don’t butt in,” repeatedly pushing back against other posters. In response, commenters offered a range of conflicting views: “If their parents allow it, it’s their own life,” “There’s no real reason, they’re just lazy,” and “As long as they’re not bothering anyone else, that’s their right.” The discussion branched into finer points too, like the quality of one’s hobbies and whether not working should come with a sense of shame, but in the end the two sides never found common ground and the argument just kept going.
What people said
But then again, if you don't work you won't have the money to enjoy any decent hobbies either
Even so, I still want to say something about it
It's just a waste of time
If the parents are fine with it, there's no problem
But if the parents are telling them to get a job, that's not okay
Well, there's freedom not to work too, as long as it's not bothering anyone else
These days there are tons of free games, and you can read as much manga as you want for free on Manga Raw or at a used bookstore (Book Off)
So it's just games or manga in the end…
And the low-quality kind you don't even have to pay for…
Yeah, most of them genuinely have no reason, they just don't work for no reason — zero-brain types
At the very least, even if it's games or manga that NEETs love, it's the kind you actually have to pay for to enjoy
Then tell me what that is
You're a working adult, OP, so you must know all kinds of fun stuff, right?
Then you should quit posting on nanG too
It's a waste of time
Can't you tell the difference between doing something in your free time and just wasting endless amounts of it?
Are you a NEET too, by any chance?
Well, I think it's fine if someone's been a NEET for a few years doing their own thing, but people who never got a job out of school and are just unemployed shouldn't get to talk like they're normal
They're trash who couldn't say anything at all if it weren't for the internet
Lumping them all together like that and just saying it's "not okay" across the board feels a bit much…
Nobody has the right to stick their nose into another family's business
But NEETs seem like the ones most likely to be sticking their noses into other families' business online
And the double standard of yelling "nobody has that right!" the moment it's turned on them — that's classic NEET behavior too
Sure, nobody has the right to comment on another family's affairs
But if you can see a future coming where they eventually can't keep being a NEET anymore, end up on welfare (namapo), or show up as a useless hire at some workplace
then yeah, you start wanting to say something
Sounds pretty low-quality to me lol
It's impressive that you can hear plain common sense like this and think you're being "attacked"
Guess this proves NEETs really don't see not working as their own responsibility
NEETs are probably mocking and slandering other people like crazy, but they probably don't even realize that's what they're doing
Compared to the frustration of doing something you hate, like work, on top of getting nagged by your boss, this is nothing to me
It's that simple, really
I don't get why they're getting so mad about it
Then again, not a single NEET here has actually written down why they don't work
They're freaks who can't even understand themselves lol
What's the point of writing that here anyway
More importantly, are you gonna tell me what counts as a "high-quality" hobby or not?
Not everyone is able to fully understand themselves
And not realizing that in itself is a sign of low intelligence
If I were working, I'd be feeling like this in about 6 more hours, so hey, fair play to everyone who's actually doing it lol
As a NEET, Mondays don't scare me at all — it feels like Friday just shows up in the blink of an eye lol
Background and Talking Points
Administratively, “NEET” originally referred to a specific slice of the 15-34 non-working population who aren’t in school or doing housework, but on forums the term is usually used more loosely to mean anyone who isn’t working, and this thread proceeds without ever pinning down a strict definition either. Threads like this tend to follow a familiar pattern: the position that “not working is your own responsibility” talks past the position that “how you live is your own business as long as you’re not bothering anyone else,” and neither side ever really meets in the middle — exactly what played out again here. On top of that, these kinds of threads are often kicked off by a deliberately provocative post, and the discussion has a tendency to slide into personal attacks partway through. This thread was no exception, with some exchanges devolving into insults that treated the other person as if they had a disability, so those portions have been left out of this write-up.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nanademo Jikkyo G) thread “Why do these so-called NEETs never work?“
Leave a Reply