[dziungles]

"What will keep people--resigned to their fate--from plopping on the couch to wait it out, as opposed to attempting something more ambitious?"

When the mind and body is in movement, when it has goals and ambitions - that all creates a good feeling for a human being. Look at kids in healthy environments. Look at kids in unorthodox schools. Look at successful entrepreneurs who keep working even after they become financially independent.

The opposite "lying in bed" doesn't stimulate the mind, nor body, is boring and depressing.

Only in today's world, where we have the concept of responsibility, we blame people if they try and fail. Or we don't create opportunities for people to learn useful skills, and then we force them (in a moral ways of course) to work in poorly paid, low status and hard labour jobs. Of course, under such conditions, many people believe that happiness is lying in bed.