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Comment by gonational | Hacker News Reader

Timeline of Stupidity

    A: "we should give everyone free money!"
    B: "no, that'll make everyone lazy..."
    A: "no, people will work on things they love instead!"
    [everyone gets free money]
    [nobody works, everyone plays video games all day]
    A: "see, this proves that everyone was being exploited!"
    B: [smh]

Plato's Five Regimes. We're entering the fourth regime.

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Do you think that would last? I know I wouldn't be able to sit on my ass and just play video games for very long, even if I got paid or won the lotto, or whatever. My wife wouldn't either (though, we tend to marry our equal - or I hope we do). I'm generally curious as to what percentage of the population would actually sit for their entire lifetime and be stoned, play video games and make nothing for the long term. I realized that there is a percentage that would do this, but do you think it would really be that large? Are my friends group that skewed of a sample?

It depends on individual preferences. Individuals with a high preference for $ would still go to work, whereas others would play games at home. This could mean higher productivity at work and better customer and employer satisfaction, as people who hate working and hate their jobs and do their jobs poorly, would just play videos games instead.

I guess, yeah. I might do something a little more creative but similar. It's just hard for me to imagine just not creating something, anything. Lack of imagination on my part, really. I can't imagine that anymore than the argument of "people will just use their checks to buy heroin and be drug addicts". I assume there are a small percent, but it's small. I just assume people would still want to make things for the sake of making things. Just for purpose =/

It's almost like this happened in the midst of a global pandemic where most people aren't allowed to do the things they would rather do than sit inside and play games...

That's crazy, no. people are lazy and will be lazy if you give them the option.

There's plenty of jobs available. No jobs are unavailable due to covid restrictions.

Burnouts playing video games is not new to the pandemic, the only difference is their pay raise.

Ok, but at some level of automation the number of low-skill jobs will be much less than the number of candidates. When this occurs, what's a viable career path for someone without a College education? Or even someone with a College education that's no longer relevant/in demand? We already have more than enough bullshit jobs...

Perhaps the answer is to start shortening the work week.

You missed the part where you lose "free" money when you start working, genius.

Video games are considered e-sports in South Korea and some people do get paid to play them. Imagine a full stadium with a few guys playing games and the audience watching them on big screens.

You're technically right in the sense that some people do play video games for a living, but you're still wrong because GP talked about "everyone" playing video games for a living. just like you can't have everyone being actors/writers/musicians, you can't have everyone be esports players. There's only so much attention to go around, and the overwhelming majority is captured by a few at the top.

They don't "play games" in any common meaning of the term though. It's not entertainment, it's work. It's not intended to pass the time, they train long hours to get better. Very, very, very few people do that, because it's not fun, it's work.

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