From the March 13, 2024, edition of Daily Wire's The Ben Shapiro Show

BEN SHAPIRO (HOST): One of the fascinating things that some of the people who are sort of on the right on this, typically would be considered right wing of the political spectrum who were very upset with me yesterday.

They were saying, well, you don't respect the blue-collar worker because you're saying that people, quote, unquote, don't deserve to retire. My point is that I don't think that retirement is a good personal decision. I don't think there's a deserve about it. You deserve whatever you can pay for. As far as what you deserve from the public, from the guy who's still working, that's a completely different story.

But it is interesting to me that many of the same people who will, for example, object to automated technologies because they say that it kills jobs and people need jobs. The universal basic income won't do it. You can't just cut somebody a welfare check and find a sense of fulfillment in that, Suddenly believe that the logic reverses itself when you hit 65. When you hit 65, they can cut you a welfare check-in the form of Social Security. And that somehow this is more fulfilling than when you were 30 and they were cutting you a welfare check in lieu of a job. You can't have it both ways. You can't have jobs are good and also jobs are bad. Like, you you you gotta pick one.

And my general perception is that human beings like to work in one form or another. And that human beings are really not made to, quote, unquote, retire in the way that we think of it, like sitting on a pool deck somewhere for 20 years. That's not what human beings are created for. From a Biblical perspective, you might say, thou shalt work 6 days a week, and on 7th, thou shalt rest. You might you might say that. As long as you still have your health and as long as you still have your mental aptitude, it seems to me like most people want to work and should. And that doesn't mean the government forces them to. We're not talking about sending you to the salt mines when you're 70 years old.

But I'm just bewildered by this perception that that's somehow an elitist sentiment when the point that I'm making is that I believe it is human nature for people to want to feel productive, useful, and purposeful. And if you can't find that production and purpose anywhere else than a job, which seems to be the way that it works in America these days, because, again, church and family have disappeared, then you're gonna have a bigger problem than you think when you, quote, unquote, retire.