Already 38% of Americans aged 16 or older do not work and are not looking for work and yet are not dying from hunger or exposure. This would have seemed like a utopian dream to someone from the 1800s.
Being 16, 17 and 18 and not working is expected, given they are still at school. A good percentage of people aged 18 to 24 are studying full time.
This stat seems a bit misleading and doesn't support the "you can live and not work argument". How many of those people are retired? How many of those are under 18? How many of those simply cannot work? How many of those live at home or are on food stamp?
... these days. 100 years ago you'd have a job at 12 in many cases, 14-16 if you were more lucky.
I'm not even talking about peasants from previous centuries.
The market comment linked in the paragraph above that one features a toy model of the US economy which illustrates this (section "Equilibrium in output and income"). [2]