If people should ever start to do only what is necessary millions would die of hunger.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Human activity requires more than just necessity. If we only did essential tasks, the economy and society would collapse.
- In plain terms
- If we only did necessary things, many would starve.
- What can you take from it?
- Society relies on unnecessary work too.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What makes work valuable?
- Is all work necessary?
Another view
Automation could reduce necessary work without starvation.
More from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
The pleasures of the imagination are as it were only drawings and models which are played with by poor people who cannot afford the real thing.
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