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2/ People who HAVE to work or risk starving/becoming homeless are in trouble, but people who just suffer standard of living decrease aren't
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3/ Income inequality creates leisure class of people not hurting enough to take downward mobility jobs, not free enough to innovate new ones
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4/ The only thing this class lacks that employment provides is status hierarchy to inhabit.But game worlds etc. are starting to provide that
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5/ This means "unemployment problem" is meaningless, as it was back in Luddite era,but people not *wanting* to work is likely new phenomenon
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6/ We fantasize about leisure, but very few are temperamentally suited to it, and society has never had institutions to support it.
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7/ So leisure societies of the past have been temporary and "decadent" in a destabilizing way, not just morally objectionable to a few
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8/ Game worlds are perhaps first true leisure institutions that allow for "stable decadence" -- still morally objectionable to some, but...
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10/ Unlike TV which is not rich enough to prevent atrophy of the self, games I think are rich enough to sustain non-degenerative leisure
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11/ We will soon be asking, "how can smart people be idling away playing video games when there are starving children in Africa to help?"
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13/ I think such arguments will be exactly as fallacious as the "Why Mars missions when there are starving children in Africa" argument
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14/ For deep reasons, the industrial economy could not alleviate poverty without ALSO exploring space etc. Deep floor+ceiling coupling there
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