Quote Originally Posted by wufwugy View Post
The main incentive of a laborer is making a wage to buy things he wants. Framing it as not wanting to lose his job is painting with a brush of dysphemism.
The main incentive of getting a job is to buy things that one wants. But that isn't the incentive to do the best one can do. If I'm paid £10 an hour to work in a factory, do you think I'm going to be as productive as someone doing the same job who has shares in the company, or gets x% of the profits as a yearly bonus? Nope.

I think you underestimate the sheer volume of people who basically grind through their working day doing as little as they can get away with. The incentive to meet the minimum criteria in this regard is fear of losing the job... that's all that's stopping them doing a worse job.

Buying things isn't an incentive to work harder if you're not going to get paid more for working harder.