The never ending chase: “I’ve got to have something to do and make lots of money at it.”
If one farmer has the technology to process food for 2,000 people, at what price should those people receive the benefits of his work so that he is fairly compensated and they are fed?
To the extent technology and manufacturing make the availability of goods easier and cheaper, there may just be a lot of people with “nothing to do.”
The problem with that, though, is how much there is to do in the way of serving others, even if only compensated with food, clothing, and shelter.
My town has a fairly high unemployment rate. Those who are able-bodied and unemployed may prefer to sit around and collect benefits, but that does not mean there is no work for them. They could start by doing some general cleaning around town.
Rule #1 in my house is that no child shall say "I'm bored. There's nothing to do."
Those words are music to my ears. There are always things to pick up, laundry/dishes to do, floors to be swept/vaccuumed, closets to clean, garages to clean, lawns to rake/seed/mow......
I once read an author who suggested getting rid of jail time for "misdemeanor" offenses. There was no sense in tossing someone in jail for having (for instance) a little bit of weed, he suggested ... but there were always streets to be swept, litter to pick up, ditches to be mucked out, and so on. In his opinion, a weekend spent swinging a rake in a public park, while wearing a pink jumpsuit with a big "P" on the back, would have much more more deterrent than a fine and jail time.
He might have been on to something, sez me.