[WillowTheWhisp]

Originally Posted by blazey

We are obviously obliged to care for our families, but paid work is not necessarily an obligation at birth, because not all societies do have paid work.

I'd like to live in a tribe and not have to think about paid work. Although the recent programmes showing the lives of tribes show a hard working society, its nice to see how they function off only natural things and live very fulfilling lives. I really like that idea. There dont seem to be many massive tribal wars either.

Paid work may not always be necessary depending on the society you live in but some kind of work is always necessary by someone. If everyone decided that they didn't fancy bothering and didn't feel obliged to work then nothing at all would ever get done and we'd all starve to death.

Living the commune lifestyle does sound ideal on the face of it - everyone does as much as they are capable of and only takes as much as they need. Unfortunately human beings tend to get lazy and greedy and you get people wanting more but doing less and that leads to resentment and conflict.

If you imagined trying to live "The Good Life" and be self sufficient you'd still need to earn money to pay bills. There are some unavoidable bills. Also in order to be self sufficient you still need to work at growing food etc.

What tribes are you referring to? There may not be wars on the scale of WWI and WWII but there are and have been many tribal wars with people being driven out of their homes, maimed and killed. In many ways tribal warfare can be more cruel to the civilians. It doesn't need to be on a global scale for the individual suffering to be just as acute.