Are deliberately unemployed people a drain on society?

[Antonio the Sixth]

lolno

[Antonio the Sixth]

lolno

Care to elaborate?

Nah, not really. I believe that every human being has a universal right to a basic standard of living ensuring access to basic goods such as food, housing and education, regardless of whether they choose to work or not. There isn't much more to say.

[Antonio the Sixth]

lolno

Care to elaborate?

Nah, not really. I believe that every human being has a universal right to a basic standard of living ensuring access to basic goods such as food, housing and education, regardless of whether they choose to work or not. There isn't much more to say.

Okay, thanks for the elaboration. I agree that every human being has the right to a minimum standard of living, but that doesn't change the fact that people who chose  not to work (or do anything else productive, such as caring for their family) are objectively a drain to society. If you consume resources without contributing, you are a drain.

Only if you consider such resources (and let's remember we are talking about nothing more than some meager unemployment benefits here) to be a reward for work or for the act of seeking work. However, if they are an entitlement (a word that is almost always used in disparaging terms but which the left should reclaim), then nobody can "drain" them from anybody, since everyone has access to them.

[Antonio the Sixth]

lolno

Care to elaborate?

Nah, not really. I believe that every human being has a universal right to a basic standard of living ensuring access to basic goods such as food, housing and education, regardless of whether they choose to work or not. There isn't much more to say.

Okay, thanks for the elaboration. I agree that every human being has the right to a minimum standard of living, but that doesn't change the fact that people who chose  not to work (or do anything else productive, such as caring for their family) are objectively a drain to society. If you consume resources without contributing, you are a drain.

Only if you consider such resources (and let's remember we are talking about nothing more than some meager unemployment benefits here) to be a reward for work or for the act of seeking work. However, if they are an entitlement (a word that is almost always used in disparaging terms but which the left should reclaim), then nobody can "drain" them from anybody, since everyone has access to them.

Society has a limited pool of resources, if you take resources without contributing (with labour or otherwise) you drain that pool. This can be legitimate if you cant contribute because of age, illness, handicap etc., but if you just choose not to contribute anything its both unethical and a drain of resources that somebody else could use.

Society has more than enough resources for everyone to live a more than comfortable life. The only problem is that these resources are improperly distributed.

[Antonio the Sixth]

lolno

Care to elaborate?

Nah, not really. I believe that every human being has a universal right to a basic standard of living ensuring access to basic goods such as food, housing and education, regardless of whether they choose to work or not. There isn't much more to say.

Okay, thanks for the elaboration. I agree that every human being has the right to a minimum standard of living, but that doesn't change the fact that people who chose  not to work (or do anything else productive, such as caring for their family) are objectively a drain to society. If you consume resources without contributing, you are a drain.

Only if you consider such resources (and let's remember we are talking about nothing more than some meager unemployment benefits here) to be a reward for work or for the act of seeking work. However, if they are an entitlement (a word that is almost always used in disparaging terms but which the left should reclaim), then nobody can "drain" them from anybody, since everyone has access to them.

Society has a limited pool of resources, if you take resources without contributing (with labour or otherwise) you drain that pool. This can be legitimate if you cant contribute because of age, illness, handicap etc., but if you just choose not to contribute anything its both unethical and a drain of resources that somebody else could use.

Society has more than enough resources for everyone to live a more than comfortable life. The only problem is that these resources are improperly distributed.

that's true to an extent. but don't you also agree that if the developing world lived like americans or even just the average frenchman/german/whatever there wouldn't be enough resources for everyone? granted, it's absolutely true that a country like the us could give everyone who *currently* needs it food and basic shelter if it really wanted to. although that still leaves the old question of what would happen if all those people had more children 'in need' than they might otherwise have. and no that isn't intended to be some lame coded 'black baby mommas' type thing just more of a general statement

Well, first of all, while not everyone on the planet might be able live at the standards of the average westerner, the situation might be a bit different if we think in terms of the median westerner. Since the distribution of wealth and income is naturally skewed to the right, GDP per capita and similar indicators tend to overstate the level of wealth of most people. I don't have precise figures right now to tell you how much difference it makes, but my guess is that it brings the numbers down by quite a bit.

Now of course that might still not be enough, so of course we will have to figure out a way to allow developing countries to reach our standards of living without consuming as much finite resources as we did in our time - but that opens up a whole new debate.

[Antonio the Sixth]

to force with all means them to become productive members of society for their own good.

This is disgusting.