Laziness and Socialism

One of the most common arguments against providing food and shelter free for everyone in society is that people will slack off. The belief is that everyone of us secretly wishes not to strive. Without food and shelter as incentives, the argument goes, people will turn into lazy sloths.

Let's grant that the argument is valid. What is so wrong about laziness? There are worse crimes in the world, and laziness in fact indicates a tendency towards calm repose. Slackers are too lazy to rob banks, rape, or murder. In a socialist society, violence and crime will likely decrease.

In reality however, even lazy people like to accomplish something from time to time, as it is boring to be lazy all day long. A lazy person who spends a few hours doing nothing, may feel stirred up to create or do something useful in small bursts. This breeds efficiency because the new action is full of motivation and energy. Believe me, I speak from experience.

We all know someone who finds ways to slack off sneakily to avoid being caught by the boss. Most of us are guilty of that at some period of our lives, because the hours we spend at stifling workplaces breeds inefficiency and laziness. We try to escape the tedium at work by amusing ourselves with either video games or gossip, and it is very possible that the average white collar employee only works 4 hours in a typical 8 hour shift. This is not so different from our hypothetical slacker's acheivements mentioned above.

It is not fair to argue that if people didn't work, we wouldn't have enough food to distribute to everyone. Food is the biggest motivator for work, and there is more than enough of it to feed the entire human population for generations to come.