Geoffrey Klien
[What if all I want to do is play videogames and drink beer all day?]
You know what, I'm gonna say you don't actually want to do that.
You only say you want to do that because life and work sucks under capitalism and that is an escape from it. The only thing you want to do,
other than go and work all day, is sit around, drink beer, and play games; because that sounds relaxing and fun. But to then ascribe that
scenario to a socialist society is disingenuous.
Sure, you could probably spend days, maybe weeks, drinking beer and playing games all day, but, what if you were allowed
to go into a field you actually care about and are interested in? What if you had ample time off, got actual sick days, ample vacation
opportunities, control over your workplace, and money didn't determine whether you could eat or not, get actual healthcare, or even get education?
How long do you think you could spend drinking and gaming when you don't feel like you need all the time in the world to relax and unwind? I'm sure
you'd get bored at some point; humans are literally wired to do that.
Humans actually like doing things and don't need an incentive to do them, like working on a project, helping others, volunteering, learning, etc. So, even if you vehemently stick to never working under socialism, I guarantee you will get bored and you will do something.
[So communism will deem this actually valuable and support my dreams?]
Communism isn't going to deem it valuable nor will it support you in the endeavor, but I can guarantee that you will at least do something, maybe even something valuable, at some point because everyone gets bored eventually.
When someone brings up the pay in socialism it often comes from a place of misunderstanding about pay.
They either think you don't get paid or that every job pays the same. That isn't exactly how it works. You can get paid—you
can be paid a lot depending on the job. This exposes how the person thinks about work and the exchange of employment and life.
Normal people think you should be paid more for a harder or more skilled job. Where this goes wrong is when somebody is elitist
about their job and doesn't like when people "below" them can do just as well.
This ignores the fact you don't have some guy that gets free money just for owning a business, and that they have the means of
produciton and control over their workplace.
Following on the job elitism and individualism, they don't think about that money going into society. Use
the money for welfare and other stuff. Imagine if we weren't putting $800 billion into the military or paying for our insane debt.
There are people who actually can't work and can't make money; it's not this mythical organization of lazy people and thieving
minorities that people like Reagan invented out of thin air. Why are kids forced to pay for their own food at school, a place
they are forced to be 5 days a week? Why are there hungry kids in general?
Put that money into society, less educated people still deserve to survive and participate. But, also notice that a lot of the
people acting like this went into the trades? ( and also rag on college-educated people; it's an inferiority thing).