I wouldn't even attempt to justify this in a market-based economy...earning as much as you can to take care of yourself and your family and shelter them from the vagaries of life is kinda the point, right?

Actors acting in their interest to maximize happiness and well-being is the basis of all modern non-Marxist economies, and every metric related to those goals shows that this albeit-non-perfect-system works pretty damn good.

There really isn't any point in rehashing the 160yo Marxism v. Capitalism argument here, I know, but there is almost zero evidence that in a wildly diversified and large society (not Sweden or Denmark, for example), that a government-controlled economy can bring happiness and well-being to its people.