Big mood. T'was always one of my favs. With a bit of customization, it has once again become one of my mains. :P

Wheelie scooter my beloved

More of this (and situations that might lead to this 👀).

Or just more Klonoa in general. :P

Nah, he wasn't meaning to be out Im sure. He's a bit of an airhead [ neutral ] and probably just lost track of time. He did forget his phone after all. 😅

Or in other words, technological innovation has merely been a catalyst.

The abuse isn't relative to the technology level. It's relative the how much value workers get out of their work, and whether the work is necessary.

Whether of bonafide slavery or corporate slaves, the value has always been in the hands of the people. And yet, they aren't credited for such.

In such an alternative world, this would no longer exist as a system. Whether by lottery or mandate, or if people chose of their own volition, or even something in-between and nuanced, you could spread the available workload across the able bodied population.

In simpler terms: load-balancing.

The abuse in modern society stems from the disparity. More hours, less pay, as rent, food, and healthcare continue to increase in price, forcing people to work even longer and harder, regardless of ability to sustain such an effort, just to have the bare minimum to survive.

We have excess today, with a *fraction* of human labor, and the ratio between the two grows wider every day.

If we targeted "sustenance" rather than "abundance", we'd need even less labor to achieve balance.

Labor would also be more easily distributed as well. Shorter hours, less days, per person.

Regardless of technology level?

Debatable. But I feel that's a bit of a cheat. We have the technology. Worry about some sort of sudden regression, forcing post-modern society to weather pre-modern events is misplaced.

With the technology we have today, we all would persevere.

Not everyone wants to be an artist. Not everyone likes to create. Some people genuinely enjoy working. My partner is one of them.

He readily admits he isn't good at creative pursuits, but he finds self worth and value in working. There are many people out there, like this.

Society will survive.

I'm 100% sure.

Best case, because of the people who genuinely enjoy doing the tough jobs.

Worst case, the minute the conveniences of modern society start to mildly collapse in some small way, people will work together to solve it. (E.G. trash/sewage issues, telecommunication outages, etc.)

I mean this is harmful for people like myself who genuinely might just be saying [X], without the [Y]. But I digress.

I'm bitterly aware general society is more aligned with your thought process.

*grow food

Point is though that there will always be farmers and chefs and such. There's even people out there jazzed to be sanitation workers.

People will find a way to make it work, if given control of their own destiny.

Creative minds need not be burdened by expectations.

Artists wouldn't need "contribute materially" as the level of contributions necessary would already have been cared for by everyone else around them.

… contribute to the degree necessary to keep society and its welfare state in order.

As long as there are people who like to grow good, people who love to cook, people who wish to build homes, etc. then society will continue to function.

Plenty of people to go around. Not everyone is an artist.