"The human condition is such that most people devolve into pretty useless individuals once all is provided for them with no effort. Even if what is provided is not "all" this usually has negative effects."
Source? Evidence?
It doesn't meet the basic smell test. The vast majority of the population works far harder and for far longer than they need to to attain a basic standard of living.
I earned enough to get by in college working ~10 hours a week. When I graduated I still got a full time job. I also could have retired 10 years ago but I'm still working hard. You could have simply got a job and worked 10-15 hours a week to have your basic needs met and yet you worked your ass off.
A few hundred thousand years of human history. What kind of a stupid question is that? Examples of the human struggle to clear difficult hurdles and advance abound.
No. Not everyone succeeds.
> You could have simply got a job and worked 10-15 hours a week to have your basic needs met and yet you worked your ass off.
That's the beauty of freedom. I chose to work hard, invent technologies, build companies and, as a result, create jobs for people like you who chose a different path in life. One isn't any less than the other, just choices. Yet not everyone is willing to take the risks lots of entrepreneurs will gladly brave in the pursuit of their dreams and ideas.
What is wrong is taking from those who work 80 hours a week to subsidize thise who only want to work 10. If you work 10 then you get to live the life 10 hours a week affords you.
I'll give you another example of this. Up until Obamacare our family was paying $600 a month with a $3,000 annual deductible for health insurance. After Obamacare we pay $1,400 per month and our deductible is fucking $9,000 per year. So we went from $10,200 per year to $25,800. And we are likely subsidizing people who want to work 10 hours per week. That is theft.
It is simple. If you want to choose the 10 hour per week lifestyle, fantastic. Do not steal from others to get he things your work ethic cannot get you.
You can't have it both ways unless you are willing to take risks and work hard to rise to a different level. Today I probably work less than 10 hours a week and make more per month than most Silicon Valley developers make in a year. That took effort, sacrifice, loosing it all twice, learning from mistakes and not giving up.
"A few hundred thousand years of human history. What kind of a stupid question is that? Examples of the human struggle to clear difficult hurdles and advance abound."
So you don't have any? I didn't think so.
The western world has had life so easy relative to the thousand years before and yet we have made far more progress.
We have a lot more provided to us "for free" than third world countries and yet our productivity per person is miles ahead of theirs.
"That's the beauty of freedom."
Yes it is. And it is clear that the vast majority of us are happy to work hard even once we have met our basic needs.
The rest of your post is just political talking points. I'm not interested in talking politics or right vs wrong.
On the contrary, the evidence is overwhelming. You are simply more interested in pretending it isn't there. Just watched a very interesting documentary that traces the history of artificial light. It absolutely drives my point home. The relevant societies could have chosen a social framework where nobody would care to do better because everything was provided to one degree or another. Instead, the chaotic process of entrepreneurial evolution resulted in a technology that changed the lives of billions of people, created billions of jobs and raised the standard of living of every human being on this planet. Yet many entrepreneurs had to try and fail before that was possible. People content with working ten hours a week to just get by do not advance society, they simply exist within it and are unfairly supported by those who choose to expend a greater effort to advance themselves and others.
Just say "thank you" and move on. You have no point.
"People content with working ten hours a week to just get by do not advance society"
You are missing the point. I'm saying the majority of the working population can meet their basic needs with 10 hours a week of work and yet they work much harder and for much longer.
So why then do you keep insisting if they could meet their basic needs in 0 hours they would just be lazy? If modern society is any indication then the vast majority would work just as hard.
Source? Evidence?
It doesn't meet the basic smell test. The vast majority of the population works far harder and for far longer than they need to to attain a basic standard of living.
I earned enough to get by in college working ~10 hours a week. When I graduated I still got a full time job. I also could have retired 10 years ago but I'm still working hard. You could have simply got a job and worked 10-15 hours a week to have your basic needs met and yet you worked your ass off.