I&#x27;ll upvote you because I think you have a valid opinion, and you shouldn&#x27;t be downvoted because your opinions differ from others. We need other opinions to have a healthy discussion after all.<p>I just want to say that first of all, you can certainly be productive without generating an income. All the people who contribute to OSS projects are certainly productive despite not being paid to do so for example.<p>Also, the idea that if you don&#x27;t need to make a living, you will be lazier or less likely to work is actually incorrect, at least according to this: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;economics.mit.edu&#x2F;files&#x2F;10861" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;economics.mit.edu&#x2F;files&#x2F;10861</a><p>I&#x27;ll be honest in admitting I haven&#x27;t gotten around to reading it, I&#x27;ve only read the conclusion and intro, so please do correct me if I was wrong.<p>Finally, and this is more personal, I really do believe that most people will do better work if they are not pressured to make a living. For example, if university professors didn&#x27;t have to earn a living, I imagine they would spend all their time doing research instead of using most of their time now doing administrative tasks. I can&#x27;t imagine anyone became a professor thinking they wanted to go to meetings; certainly all the people I&#x27;ve met who wanted to become professors did it in spite of the fact they knew they would have to deal with a lot of nonsense because they could not imagine doing anything besides research.<p>How many PhD students in CS end up in industry because the academic environment is awful? I suppose you could argue that by joining industry they are more productive but I&#x27;d argue that both are productive, but an individual would be more productive working where their passions align.<p>I think most people here would not be doing what their job requires but instead contribute to OSS, and honestly we probably have better software as a result.