[Filligree]

He didn't say so explicitly, but the horse-count is typically used in relation to this point:

What happens when the value of your work falls below the cost of subsistence? In the case of the horses, once feeding them was no longer worthwhile, the answer was simple: They didn't.

Hopefully we won't do anything similar for humans. It would be the most horrendous eugenics program of all time.

[pjc50]

This is the pretty much the stated goal of "austerity" benefits cuts. It's already starting to have the effect in the UK of disabled people starving or freezing to death due to not being able to afford to carry on living. So far in small numbers ...