The Machine We Call Life The older I get, the harder it is to believe life has any inherent purpose. We spend our childhood preparing to become workers, then trade most of our lives for a paycheck just to survive. We earn, spend, repeat and call it living. Consumerism tells us happiness is always one purchase away, but that feeling never lasts. It can't. A system built on endless consumption depends on people never being satisfied. Meanwhile, those who exploit, manipulate, and prioritize profit often rise to the top. Wealth and power frequently reward greed more than kindness, while ordinary people work harder every year just to stay afloat. We're told to keep the cycle going: get a job, buy a house, have children, and encourage the next generation to do the same. Yet few stop to ask whether this is a cycle worth repeating. Maybe there is no grand purpose. Maybe we're simply born into a system that values productivity over humanity and consumption over contentment. This is one philosophical perspective not a universal truth but it's a question more people should be willing to ask: Are we truly living, or are we just keeping the machine running?