Sorry I missed most of the discussion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pai mei
Where did I say "free lunch" ? Do you really think you need to build <x> to obtain the basics ? So you want to say people will be bored without bosses ? Of course , because they have been killed. Transformed. if they can't find happiness without somebody telling them what to do. You can do whatever you want. You can even work more, inside the system, or do what you like - outside of it.
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TANSTAAFL is an adage. It has nothing to do with actual lunches (well little). Robert Heinlein, a scifi author, used the adage a lot. He was pretty much a genius (IMO). You might enjoy reading some of his stuff, especially since you're interested in economics. It/I'm referring to the fact you want something for nothing. A lot of the points have already been made, so I'll stop short.
That you automatically paint the people who are bored after retirement as dependent on bosses is insulting. Most of the people I've met in person got bored because they liked to produce and be useful to society. They were often their own bosses and quite self-driven (police chiefs, artists, etc.). Not a slave, or dead inside, like you imply.
And I'm aware of the gift-giving-economies. I almost majored in anthropology and spent a lot of time learning about them. What you fail to mention is all the bad things that come along with it. For one, gift giving was a status symbol. No different than buying fancy cars. Chiefs would purposefully give away things -and- break things for no reason other than to assert their status as the most wealthy members of their tribe. It also sparked warfare between the tribes if one tribe felt slighted.
Not to mention the fact that all those societies would be considered 3rd world poverty economies. By and large they lived in huts and were riddled with parasites. Their life expectancy was like 30-40s or worse. If you were poor and didn't give enough gifts you could be ostracized. The gift-giving-economies are hardly better than our own, much worse in my opinion.