“ Every (legal) job adds value, and if you slack off or don’t deploy your human capital and live up to your potential, you’re stealing societal wealth from the rest of us. That’s selfish.”
No it is not selfish as long as the contract is measured against output. If a factory increases efficiency resulting in idling of the machines for 2 hours thus decreasing costs, yet at the same time keep the prices of its output same - that would never ever considered stealing. Then why is the writer considering an individuals skill and experience increasing their efficiency and producing the same output in less time as stealing?? The time the individual saves is upto them to spend any way they wish including to slack off or take a nap. The problem is that management science has failed to invent the right metrics of productivity.