Who provides the water? who provides the rest of the inputs for bread?
There are a lot of things that need to be done to provide a basic standard of living, even if 1% of the society are slaves who labor in the fields for the benefit of the other 99%.
My point is that we are far past the point where mere survival requires the whole population to work fulltime.
Collective choices are made with the assumption that everyone should work but we have the means to create an entirely different society.
Its more than comfort, agricultural productivity relies on modern technology. Storage and transport of food relies on modern technology. Modern technology is a society-wide endeavor where many people contribute in tiny ways that all add up to something that can't be replaced by any of them.
> My point is that we are far past the point where mere survival requires the whole population to work fulltime.
Indeed, labor employment to population ratios range between ~40% and ~80% nowadays.
> Collective choices are made with the assumption that everyone should work but we have the means to create an entirely different society.
I think the issue is different than you are characterizing it. Why would a few people work to support everyone else without getting anything in return?
