Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

In the days when people worked to survive, they consumed barely less than they produced. That ratio has progressively moved up so that in modern times, the productivity of 1 person supports 5 people. The question isn't how high can that ratio go, which seems limitless with robots and new technology on the horizon; what's important is why should people work at all? The vast majority of people wouldn’t work if they didn’t have to; the equatorial nations of easy food and temperate weather are proof of that. Without threat to life or comfort, people don’t work past life’s necessities; laziness & sloth are apparently the human default.

For several generations, people worked to obtain status & self-gratification but those are subjective & ephemeral things, and require a society that promotes them. When all physical things are universally available, and society no longer fosters a need for conformity, the only viable motive to work would be personal ambition, but that's a difficult trait to understand. Testosterone plays a significant role in making men ambitious & aggressive, but animals have testosterone, and they don't build cities or land on the moon. None of the egalitarian traits of equality, sympathy & envy promote those things either. Inner fulfillment is more religion than fact. Luckily, the primal motivation for men is mating; high status leads to scoring the hottest babes, so men work to increase their status; sex is what makes the wheels go round.