It's also just not true. Most people will find work to do if they have none. That's pretty much what hobbies are. And all of the people I know who lived very long lives stayed active volunteering the whole time. My grandmother was like that, and died at 97 shortly after she had to stop for health reasons.

Not to mention that if your basic necessities are covered, you could still work to buy things that aren't necessities.

I disagree that "labor" can never be voluntary. But I also fully agree that labor in a Capitalist system is fundamentally based on coercion.

The thing to me is that "labor" and "doing work" are two fundamentally different things. You can accept a role that someone else needs done in exchange for something, or you can work on things you find important or interesting, or that just needs doing, to maintain yourself and your environment in a broad sense.

If you meet people's basic needs, they do not cease to care or aspire.

A lot of the issue is "bullshit jobs" and being forced to do one. Work needs to be done, but we could be just as productive and maintain higher quality of life if we all worked less or for a shorter part of our lifespan.

Folks are happy to do a job that helps others, but they're less inclined to do a job to make a few bastards rich.

That also assumes that once people have what they need to survive they would give up on the things that they want. I'd love to have things like the necessities taken care of but I wouldn't expect them to pay for my video games and movie tickets, so I'd need a job to pay for that. Not only that, but I'd be able to work towards a career that I actually want instead of being forced to work a dead end job because I have to be constantly employed or else be homeless. The way the system works now makes it difficult to change careers or go to school later in life because any risk of being unemployed or lapse of time in our income could literally ruin our lives in a matter of weeks.

Claim is ok, the unspoken "so everything will collapse" is bullshit. In the end, Hampton is right: "work (do what someone else wants) or starve" is not how anyone should live

I don't get why it's so controversial that people should be able to survive without a job. It doesn't need to be glamourous, but nobody should be unhoused or unfed. We are blessed with plenty and we should share. And before it sounds like I'm religious, no, I'm not saying churches should be responsible for that, government should. (Though obviously I have no problems with any religious groups feeding and housing people as well.)

The specific issue in the US is the exploitation of labor to serve the need for infinite profits. In an ideal state, the government (for the people, by the people) would stand between the needs of labor and the needs of profit by providing labor with legal protections from exploitation. When those in government become one with the needs of profits, the people lose.

What we are seeing now after Citizens United is that it becomes more profitable to lobby/capture the government to increase profits than it is to buy more productive labor. By extension, they use a portion of their profits to convince labor to vote against the interests of the many by identifying and focusing on divisive culture issues.

Now who is poised to protect labor? Used to be the news media holding the government accountable to the people, but now most influential news media organizations are held to the need for infinite profits. They have something to lose now if they report on an issue that interferes with their ad revenue.

The solution? Talk to your neighbors and engage in your local community. Invite others to the community. Support each other by sharing skills, knowledge, and resources locally. Serve your community rather than insatiable unidentifiable shareholders. Also be wary of organized religions that can be used to incite conflicts or division. Not saying religion is bad, just that large organizations dilute the accountability needed to prevent the reliance on infinite profits.