Don't get me wrong, people want to do good work- hence that is way I said not all motivation would cease to exist. It is human nature to want to work, I agree with that entirely. I work very hard for excessively low pay and work my tail off at my job here in America because I like it and it is rewarding and for the greater good of society (really don't do it primarily for the pay, otherwise I'd be very unsatisfied). There will always be exceptions to the rules of course- people who work way more or way less hours. China does very well economically, but most people outside of China don't want to work 12 hour days making low pay. There are still small tribes in Africa that have no clue what a car, computer, or bike is- yet they are still doing well with their hunting and gathering economy. Throw in the advances from America, China, and other countries with citizens who chase the all mighty carrot and you will have the intelligent MD who used innovation from outside the tribe succeed instead of the medicine man crushing leaves and providing only sometimes helpful treatment. Point is people work, but much more is accomplished when you stick a carrot in front of someone. If you want happiness and a sense of worth by working in a job you actually want and paying high taxes for the greater good, there is a country for you. If you want to work you tail off in hopes of making lots of money and helping the nation strive economically while being somewhat content or even sad, there is a country for you. It is all about how you define what you want and what you think other ought to want- no system is perfect unless you solely look at "happines" or "innovative economy" by themselves. On 08/25/2010 01:11 AM, Mike Miller wrote: > On Tue, 24 Aug 2010, Jeremy MountainJohnson wrote: > >> This theory of yours and reality example may equate to more happiness, >> but economic prosperity would suffer. > How do you know that? Don't people want to do good work? > > >> You're talking about taking away the carrot on the stick- everyone would >> be happier but no one is chasing a carrot or having much motivation to >> do more. Meh, 5 hours of work = more family time no hurry to work longer >> hours and advance technology or cure diseases any time soon (not saying >> this would go away). Economically things would slow; which is fine, I'd >> rather be happier myself, but this isn't ideal from an economical >> productivity stand point. > It's not better for your boss, I guess. Not better for corporations who > want to drive people to do more for the corporation for less pay. I don't > know, but I think advancing technologies and finding cures for diseases > are things that people want to do anyway. I work with Danish researchers > and they are really into what they are doing and they work hard at it. > The man with both MD and PhD who works 60 hours a week isn't going to > become very rich, but he isn't doing this so that he can live in the big > house on the hill and look down his nose at his neighbors. He just loves > learning and science and he wants to contribute. I'm sure he also likes > the prestige accorded to his research successes. > > The Danes are fairly homogeneous ethnically. They can't be played the way > we are with arguments about the immigrants and the black welfare queens > stealing all of our hard earned money. They have some problems with > immigrants, as you've heard (the cartoon of Muhammed case) but that is a > small thing, at least so far. > > Mike > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list