This. I've never been able to put this idea into words. And this phrase doesn't quite capture what I think has been a giant, gaping hole in our economics and society, but it's a great start to putting words to it. Our society and economics are based around the idea that there is great scarcity and everyone must work in order to create things and prove they deserve to survive. But there isn't scarcity. Quite the contrary, there is an over abundance of the basic necessities of life. There is a scarcity of things to do and produce. We've gotten so efficient that we can produce more than enough stuff. The problem we now face, is figuring out how to distribute that stuff in a way that isn't based on working a job (the one thing that is truly scare) for money and using that money to buy stuff.