Gruesome how we have social darwinists even here in comments

And they wonder why nobody wants to bring a baby into this world

Thank you. I have been saying this for years (more than a decade now).

Feminism fought for the independence of women from abusive husbands/partners, by making them earn their own money, so they can be free. I would not say that the majority of the population feels particularly free today, because the economic situation strangles them. There is a new dependency created in stead of the old one: The dependency from the employer. Especially with at-will employment, a manager or higher-up can fire you at any moment, which can cause homelessness and despair. These are not good things that we want to have.

The logical consequence of fighting for freedom and equality is to fight for economic equality: People should be able to eat and sleep in peace, without having to worry about their circumstances tomorrow. "Equality" does not mean that everybody has the same amount, but that everybody has the chances they need to succeed in life.

We need a universal basic income, or any equivalent of it such as handouts in various forms.

You don’t deserve to be alive in this kingdom, but the catch is there is nowhere to live that is not owned.

You know, when i originally read this, the way i interpreted it was that he was saying that if you need to earn money to live you don't deserve to live.

I much prefer the version that is an indictment of the phrase "earn a living" as implying you don't deserve to live if you aren't "working" in the modern sense of earning money at a modern job vs doing what's necessary to stay alive like all nature's critters.

It's crazy how expensive it is to be alive.

Our society (with US at the forefront) is built on contradictions. On one hand, capitalism says you don’t deserve anything, you have to earn it. On the other hand, consumerism says you deserve every new gadget, luxury, treat.

I believe both are false: everyone deserves a reasonable standard of living (UBI?), nobody inherently deserves more than that but it should be possible to earn it. And we should acknowledge that earning something is not a matter of moral superiority, but a combination of some effort and some luck.

I dont belong on this planet. That's why I have to rent space until I mercifully pass away. Giving birth is child abuse and the most selfish act possible.

Well, l don't earn a living since I don't feel pressurised. But I ought to do something worthwhile just to feel that I am alive !!

ITT: guys who probably consider themselves too smart for religion thinking in terms dictated by the church.

"Deserving" and "undeserving* are made up concepts disconnected from any concrete reality, just shards of Christianity preserved in the amber of American civic religion and exported throughout the capitalist-dominated world. If you talk about who "deserves" this or that, you might as well be talking about who's holy and who's a sinner. The truth is, we are just animals who banded together tens of thousands of years ago to help each other survive. Many anthropologists say that society began when we started taking care of those who could no longer contribute as much physically: the old, the sick, the injured. But hey, if you want to be less socially evolved than a bunch of cave-dwelling hunter gatherers, that's your choice. Just don't expect the rest of humanity to entertain your rotten ideas about useless eaters, and don't act surprised when you find yourself put out on the ice.

Well since it's literaly us vs the planet (since we seem to be unable to regulate our society's consumption of finite resources), the question is : does the planet exist for us to consume it ?

The answer is no, but we'll still consume it.

Do we deserve to live ? Well outside of society, there is no reason we're deserving it more than any living being. And sometimes I clearly wonder, when some individuals contribution is a big negative legacy for the next ones, and to the planet.

Tbh I do not mean we (humans) do not deserve to live, but I clearly wouldn't want it taken for granted, cause it is not.

Deserving to live and surviving are not the same. In the natural condition if you don't gather or hunt, you have no food. You die. You do not deserve anything.

Even in society you are not entitled to others working for you. However, in a civilised society we should provide for those incapable to provide for themself due to ethics.

Earning a living implies that you're not using passive income to mooch off people. It's contrasted to land lords and nobility who were simply entitled to money.

Evolution makes approving noises

While I agree with the sentiment I also think that it's best for society if everyone contributes while realizing that some are able to contribute more than others. Essentially no freeloaders.

(Oh wow. No one replied with this quote yet...)

“We should do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian Darwinian theory he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.” ― Buckminster Fuller

No one deserves to be alive, except perhaps by virtue of being alive in that everyone deserves the converse: not to have life taken from them.

You had millions of possible brothers and sisters who didn't make it. You were just the lucky one.

And, of course, earn a living means make enough to support yourself, and others if you choose. Nothing to do with what is inferred and also not something everyone can do.

Can I be the Genx here and just … yeah, we’ve always had to work for survival. Like each and every organism that find a niche. They are all working… even photosynthesis is a kind of activity.

Good grief.

All critters have to work. Think about it.