Exactly my thoughts

Because you can work and live at the same time when you find your work fun to do. :)
And because in this society you need money to be able to survive and you get money through work, thus you need to work... ~_~

I know it :)
But think about it: you're working to get the money, and the money is necessary for a decent life. But when work takes almost all your time and effort, then there is no time to live. Then, the life itself loses its meaning in part, if there is just a job and no time even to just be with your family :C

True, but "living" can have various meanings. It depends on ones priorities. For instance, if your priority in life is to have fun that's easy. You can make jokes with colleagues, have an awesome time at work and come home with a smile on your face. But you can also have family and friends as a priority and then work is in the way indeed. But there are evenings and weekends, there are also part-time jobs that will give you some extra time off. Plus your colleagues could also become your friends, or the other way around and then when you're at work you would spend time with colleage-friends or friend-colleagues, so that would make it funner too.

It all depends on how you look at things and where you put your priorities, but in the end you can definitely live AND work, one way or the other.

I'm not saying you are wrong, but consider this:
At the moment I live on the dole. Ordering a Pizza when I'm playing RPG's with my friends is out of the question. Now, I don't want to be a downer, so I do my best, that they don't notice how tight the money is for me. Which is a bit of a downer for me.

When I find a job, my situation won't change much. I will get a little more than I get now and most this little more will be swallowed up by debts, buying new clothes (something you manage far too rarely on the dole) and a new computer so I can give this borrowed one back to my friend. Chances of getting a raise over the years are slim and if they come, it won't be much.

And when it's time to retire, the pension will be roughtly the same as the dole.

A trip to the mall is full of frustration, because you see all the nice things knowing you can't afford them. Vacations will be spend at home. DVD's, Computer games will only come into play when they are downpriced. Forget visits to the cinema. The regular fuurry meeting at the pub once a month and the RPG rounds are the only things the money civers... barely.

And forget part-time-jobs. They don't pay enough to live from. And you can forget getting two of them, because both expect you to be at their beck and call, whih sooner or later will lead to conflicts, which will probably lead you to loosing one of them and you are back to square one.

And if you get a job Anisis mentioned, were you make a decent income, you won't have much free time and having fun at work is usually also limited, because your superiors tend to frown on you 'wasting valuable work time'.

While you can have co-workers as friends, it is bad to have too many of them, because if you don't share any other interests, you will talk only about work. Which sooner or later will get frustrating.

There is an old question covering this: Do you work for a living or do you live to work?
Sadly, for most people we live in a world were it is: We live to work.

I'm sorry to hear that. I am not saying it works like that for everyone, I'm just saying that you should look at different things when you're not satisfied with life...

If I may give you an example from my own life: When I started to study I wasn't sure how to do things with money. I'm normally quite strict on spending money, but since all my classmates would spend more money so did I. Soon I noticed I wasn't able to do so and because of that I stopped spending so much. Instead of buying nice snacks at school I would take some with me, so it would be cheaper. When doing things together with friends I would go to them or something and just enjoy our time together. When cycling to school I would see little flowers grow between the tiles, working their way up to still bloom and show me their beauty. I was enjoying far smaller things than usual and because of that I still had a wonderful time without spending too much money. There are so many fun things you can do without money or with little money.

Plus work itself can be fun too. You're talking as if "fun on the workfloor" means not working, but this doesn't always have to be true. My father, for instance... He's a big boss in the company he works for. He's lucky to have a huge salary, but even if he didn't have that huge salary he would still be enjoying his job, simply because he likes what he does. He has to put together meetings, discuss things with many people, try to get people to work properly and to find them a place within the company that they like, so they will function better. And what he's doing for work is enjoyable to him. So when he has this problem at work that he can't solve, he'll really try his best to make things work, he likes those challenges in his job.

I am studying to become an animator and I want to continue studying to become a film-director, simply because I think that job is fun. We had to make a little film in the introduction-week for school and I really enjoyed thinking about what kind of shots should be taken, how it could work with the story and such... I want to become a film-director. Not for the money, but for the job. As long as I have enough money to live (like paying for house/food) I will have a good time, because that job would be fun. And being a director would probably ask more than 40 hours a week from me, I know that. But if they are 40+ hours of fun work I don't mind.

So like I said, it's all in your point of view, it all depends on where you put your priorities. If you put them at big and expensive things you will get sad, indeed, and maybe even depressed. But if you put them at smaller, maybe even free things, you will see that life gets much more joyful all of a sudden. :) Just open your eyes, there are plenty of things to live for that you don't have to work for.

Because theres plenty of time to live when you retire with all your money!

When I retire I'll turn into a beggar, because pension in Russia is very tiny. I need to work all my life to have the worthy life >:C

D:

Or work if you don't make enough for a decent living at a full time job.

I see it the same way. The only reason I am honestly looking for work is because of my upbringing. *sigh*

All depends on what your definition of “live” is and what your expectations are wouldn’t it?

I just realize that almost all of my time is occupied with work and I don't have time to even just draw something for myself. :C

If you were your best friend, would you treat yourself that way?

Take some time every so often to do something totally selfish for yourself, with no thought of anyone else (so long as you do not harm anyone else). I think you will discover that your real “Best Friend” will feel better -- and as a side benefit, your creativity will begin to soar.

*smiles and happiness will happen*