What if jobs are not the solution but the problem?
&quot;How do you make a living without a job – can you receive income without working for it? Is it possible, to begin with and then, the hard part, is it ethical?&quot;<p>What about retirement? social security? disability?  You might not be &quot;making a living&quot;, but you are getting an income without working for it.  Same for investing money.  Really &quot;working for it&quot; is a loaded term in and of itself.  You might be &quot;working for it&quot; by taking risk, or putting in labor.  The author obviously doesn&#x27;t think any investor is &quot;working for it&quot; by the the tone of the article, but this is precisely what retired america is doing?<p>&quot;If you were raised to believe that work is the index of your value to society – as most of us were – would it feel like cheating to get something for nothing?&quot;<p>I don&#x27;t think this is the right question at all.  People take for granted whatever they have, and likely may feel it&#x27;s cheating, until they start taking it for granted.<p>I think the more interesting question is, if you could live even if society didn&#x27;t value what you were doing, and you could do anything (even nothing) and still be provided with everything you need to survive - what would happen to individuals and what would happen to society?<p>People by nature I think are very externally motivated (society, wealth, materialism), and if you didn&#x27;t make people go to work, would they?  If they did, would they still put up with the crappy parts of it?<p>I think what defines a satisfied life is doing things that matter to you, make yourself work, try hard, think, make yourself smile a few years down the road (after you&#x27;ve forgotten the hard parts).  But even when you have all the opportunity in the world, some people just procrastinate or fall off the wagon somewhere...