&gt;They build human capital by demonstrating an ability&#x2F;willingness to create value for other humans.<p>Are you willing to create value for other humans at less than your time is worth?  Because that is what you are asking them to do.  If it was worth their time we wouldn&#x27;t have to threaten them with pain or death to incentivise them.<p>Value for humans works both ways...people value their own time (your watching TV example) it is true.  But if they were sufficiently incentivised with added value, they would create value for others in order to improve the remainder of their own time.  That&#x27;s how it works.  Enlightened self-interest, and all that.<p>&gt; I assume that you also believe taking money from others involuntarily and giving it to non-workers is not &quot;exploitative&quot;?<p>Yes, I do because of the marginal utility of money.  Taking $1000 from someone who has $10 mil. to feed a family a four for a month is not exploitative.  The person with $10 mil. will not die or be in physical pain without that money.  That money is worth less to them than it is to the family that very well might die, or at least be in pain, without it.<p>Telling someone on the brink of total poverty, where they very well might starve over the next month, that they must work or die is exploitation.  Exploitation is not about taking money it is about extorting someone with the threat of pain or death.  It is a sure way to destroy value in a transaction.<p>The alternative is to entice someone to create value for other humans through a value add transaction -- they end up with more value for themselves rather than bargaining to limit their loss through death or pain -- you know, why the rest of us that happen to be more wealthy choose to create value for others.  The way to guarantee such a transaction is to make sure the person agreeing to that transaction is not making the decision to engage based on a physical threat.<p>I don&#x27;t know why this concept is so foreign.  It is the same reason protection rackets are illegal.