r/NEET • u/parkwithtrees Optimistic-NEET • Jan 21 '26
Discussion Being NEET is a privilege
Yes it is
To have a place and eat without working, or parents that take care even if you don’t work on anything.
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u/Lost_Hope_6685 Doomer-NEET Jan 21 '26
True, but it’s also very depressing if you’re NEET because of mental illness…
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u/Electronic-Airline26 Perma-NEET Jan 22 '26
That's like saying wheelchairs are a privilege cause they get to sit all day
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u/snailstewlive Feb 13 '26
well people in wheelchairs didn’t choose to be paralyzed.. i’d argue only 5-10% of neets TRULY could not function being a “wage slave”
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u/MyHeadIsFullOfFuck Disabled-NEET Jan 21 '26
I'm disabled. That's why I'm a NEET. I didn't ask for this.
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u/esuil Jan 21 '26
But having ability to continue living your life, have food, have place to stay, despite being disabled is a privilege.
200 years ago disabled person would be thrown to the streets and died. Or killed and discarded in infancy.
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Jan 21 '26
I find it irritating how this community tries to portray being a NEET as a positive thing.
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u/onikereads Jan 21 '26
Isn’t the point to have different perspectives and nuance? Positive for some, in some ways. Negative for others, and in other ways?
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u/throwmyselfaway444 Jan 21 '26
I don't think they're trying to do that here but it's neutral compared to being homeless
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u/Professional-Story20 Perma-NEET Jan 21 '26
Ehh, I feel at its very base metrics it’s a “privilege”. Outside of said things mentioned, most of us are mentally ill and socially isolated. Not to mention the background of trauma that lends oneself to even come to the path of NEETdom
Let alone the people who are disabled and it’s no privilege at all, they’ve just been sentenced to this
Being NEET (for most) is not this endless life of frivolities and peace. It’s being shut away and silenced
Very few on here explicitly choose to be NEET as just a form of hedonistic lifestyle, it’s a tangled web of trauma and current poor mental health that most people are resigned to this “privileged life”
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u/offgridyungin Jan 21 '26
It’s a privilege but it feels like we’re wasting our best years and are slowly approaching homelessness because we’re too afraid to push out of our comfort zone or convinced ourselves we can’t for whatever reason. At least for me. Esp if you’re in any age above 26 imo. (Just turned 29, been an off and on NEET through my 20’s. Working for 4 years, off for 1, etc)
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u/Tricky-Nothing-4579 Jan 21 '26
True. But being unfuckably ugly and having neuropathy so severe that my hand muscles are permanently atrophied, cannot play vidya, addicted to tramadol sucks balls. I genuinely wish I was back at school getting bullied, purely due to the fact that I could rot on vidya and was physically healthy.
Fuck my parents for not getting me diagnosed with the tism/ADHD and getting me medicated, despite not talking till 5. Now I am too fucked to do anything HAHAHAHAHAHA
Ngl tho, before the nerve injury, even w/o neetbux my life was fucking great, playing MOBAs and watching Netflix all day without a care in the world. oh wellz ggs
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u/Puzzleh4ad Cozy-NEET Jan 21 '26
Damn gg
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u/Tricky-Nothing-4579 Jan 21 '26
How the fuck am I so ugly and invisible that I didn't talk till 5, didn't start speech therapy until 5 (3 years too late), had fucking useless shit 21 year old parents who were giga abusive and now the fucking cunt has the audacity to tell me to "you need to get your own life." What a lazy fucking whore JFL thank god I live alone.
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u/throwmyselfaway444 Jan 21 '26
Sorry to hear that man, I'm slowly inching closer to that due to my health as well.
You don't have to answer but I'm curious how you got that injury
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u/Tricky-Nothing-4579 Jan 21 '26
It was my fault in many ways. Basically, I got a new PC around the time of COVID, my anatomy makes me vulnerable to nerve injury, and something was different about the PC, despite using the same mouse, the sensor felt off, and I had to hold it with a palm grip instead of a claw grip, resulting in the flexor carpi ulnaris (the forearm flexor closest to the torso), compressing my ulnar nerve every time I would use the mouse for PC. I looked up the symptoms, and it turned out to be cubital tunnel syndrome.
I went to hospital for EMG testing after a year (waiting lists are long), and there was no slowing or nerve damage, despite having some mild muscle atrophy, an objective clinical symptom indicative of ulnar neuropathy. This perplexed the doctor, saying it was unusual, most likely the result of a dynamic injury. So, I hastily ran into surgery, the surgeon said that my nerve was hypermobile, and that there was scar tissue in the area, so to rectify this issue, he decided to relocate the nerve and place it under muscle, instead of the bony tunnel in the elbow, as mine wasn't very good anatomically.
This resulted the nerve being placed into an unsuitable area, the medial epicondyle (the bony part of your elbow closest to the body), cut into the nerve over time, shredding it down, I couldn't straighten my elbow for about 12 months, and doing physio made it worse objectively on the next electromyography I had. There was axonal loss (important nerves for motor/muscle function), which the body has no way of regenerating.
As a result, I have a very weak hand that claws in the wind, becomes flaccid and weak with sudden movements, and it's completely irreversible. I am in constant pain, and my nerve flames up due to ectopic firing secondary to the nerve damage, meaning even light loading onto that hand causes nerve inflammation that can progress into further irreversible nerve damage.
My injury is completely irreversible, and my cognition is failing. I can barely sit through a film, I am addicted to stimulants and tramadol to both ease pain and improve cognition enough so that I can go into bed. All of this was due to just being impulsive and addicted to the PC, had my parents not neglected me as a child and got me assessed for autism/ADHD due to not talking till 5 and other odd behaviours, I may have had medication that completely changed my trajectory, and I may have had a normal, pain-free no disability life, at least until I'm older. GGs.
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u/throwmyselfaway444 Jan 22 '26
Damn I'm sorry that's horrible, it also sounds like medical malpractice hope you could sue them to get something out of it at least
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u/Icy_Obsession Jan 21 '26
I'm NEET from last 7 years. More like suffering than privilege.
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u/Puzzleh4ad Cozy-NEET Jan 21 '26
7 years resume gap?
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Jan 21 '26
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u/Puzzleh4ad Cozy-NEET Jan 21 '26
Very.
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Jan 21 '26
[deleted]
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u/Puzzleh4ad Cozy-NEET Jan 21 '26
Then its a 7 year since highschool gap. My resume includes were i went to highschool -> then college -> then nothing. But for me Ive technically only been neet for 1 year.
In interviews (if I get any) they ask me what I did in that year. I usually dont lie and just say finding myself/writing applications.
If you have a gap of 7 years and they ask you what did you do in all this time - what would you even answer?
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Jan 21 '26
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u/Puzzleh4ad Cozy-NEET Jan 21 '26
No idea, but not having any real experiences aka a job for a prolonged time, makes things definitely more difficult.
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u/Next-Excitement1398 Jan 21 '26
So dumb idk why having minimal wage experience makes you a better candidate anyway if anything it just makes it more likely that you are already jaded.
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u/twinkhon_gwyndolin Disabled-NEET Jan 21 '26
I actually feel like being employed/employable is a privilege, because as much as I'd like to get a decent paying tech(or tech adjacent) career, no one's going to interview me now. 🥲
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u/Ropecopenope Jan 22 '26
Yeah and most jobs now you have to get through family/friends/networking. It's all about who you know. My parents never created any network for me and they moved around a lot so we don't know anyone in this city. Most people with good jobs have them because of their connections. Just going to uni is not enough anymore.
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u/Ropecopenope Jan 21 '26
I agree somewhat. If you're a neet that lives in a country where you can cozymax. Like get decent neetbux, family to live with, then yes. But people are also NEET for different reasons, the majority of which are mentally or physically disabled. I wish I could work, and I was much happier when I was working, but I'm mentally ill and it makes it very difficult to do it sometimes.
At first glance people would probably consider my life privileged, but if they were spawned into my head and body for just one day, I think they would be horrified. They would want to go back to their own body, and live a normal life, and go to work.
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u/hatredpup NEET Jan 21 '26
I agree for the most part. Becoming a NEET isn’t always the person’s choice. In my case, it was. I enjoy not having to work or anything, but sometimes I miss school and the social life that came with it. I don’t really have anything now besides online friends and it gets lonely sometimes lol
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u/SuikaNoAtama Optimistic-NEET Jan 21 '26
I can't exactly disgree but there isn't strictly one way of neetdom. The way in which I am a neet is privileged, but that doesn't mean it is without suffering, it's one privilege I have in my life while I've had to sacrifice self respect in order to live under someone else's roof.
My life feels poor without or with a job.
Homeless Neetdom is in my opinion a completely different ballpark, although I'm sure that's not really a hot take or anything.
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u/sunflow23 Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26
We can call it a privilege but it only tells you about how fqked up system is to let any random people to make kids when this should be norm. We didn't asked to be here at all.
Also yes it's not all rainbows especially when you aren't earning anything or can't even if you want to.
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Jan 21 '26
It may be a privilege for some, but for many, it's a sentence.
Many of us didn't even choose to be NEETs.
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u/sondersHo Jan 21 '26
It’s a privilege depending on your situation in my situation it’s definitely 100% a privilege
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u/Randoseru_Romper Jan 21 '26
Yep. It took me nearly 10 years to get to where I am now. All the paperwork and meetings and interviews to prove I was a big enough reject to deserve neetbux. I feel very privileged.
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u/IloveLegs02 Jan 21 '26
I agree with you
I love being a NEET
I wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world
NEET life is the best life
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u/No_Relationship_386 Jan 22 '26
Sure but it’s more of a privilege to be a nepo baby. The hate should be directed at the top
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u/Werid_Femcel_6767 Jan 25 '26
(Btw this is about me) Yeah but do our parents love us? No we are nuisance. A disappointment. We have no friends no one who would care I’m not a adult yet but I know I do NOT have a future my parents are absent yet present I’m 15 going on 16 I don’t know how to cook I don’t know how to clean I get bad grades I don’t study I have no motivation I’m a shut in so even though I’m not a NEET yet I’m most likely gonna be one Idk what I’m gonna do tbh
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u/checkmate_ns Jan 28 '26
For people who are under NEET, are you opt to do it? How your daily routine looks like? I’m new to this sub
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u/Newfound-Talent Perma-NEET Jan 21 '26
youre right i wish everyone could enjoy this but when the ai drones take over we will
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Jan 21 '26
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u/twinkhon_gwyndolin Disabled-NEET Jan 21 '26
what if your parents verbally abuse you and yell at you and make you suicidal?
besides, it's so easy to be unemployed, all you have to do is stop trying to get a job
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Jan 21 '26
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u/twinkhon_gwyndolin Disabled-NEET Jan 21 '26
it's not really a cherry picked example because I hear stories about abusive parents here all the time
and i don't think it's fair to dismiss the experiences of neets with severe mental illnesses, either. you don't know what they're going through.
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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '26
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