[npsimons]

This. I also very much get the feeling that if people weren't being kept so busy trying to pay their bills, they might actually have time to pause and reflect on the current state of the world, and the powers that be don't want that. Either keep 'em busy working, or keep 'em distracted with shiny baubles and insipid passive entertainment.

Let me be clear that this isn't an attack on those who find so much passion in their work that they spend the great majority of their waking hours at it. I applaud them, and wish that more people could find that passion. But every time someone comes along and proposes something like basic income (or heaven forbid, affordable health care) that would make the path towards true passion in work and leisure, they get shouted down.

[avn2109]

>> "... or keep 'em distracted with shiny baubles and insipid passive entertainment."

Panem et circenses. Hardly a new trick, and truer now than ever.

[zo1]

For those that didn't get the Latin reference: Bread and Circuses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses

[eli_gottlieb]

A few decades ago, when mass consumption of luxury goods was still "A Thing", I could have agreed. These days, the system mostly just keeps busy people at work, constantly trying to keep up with their bills.