>What cozy games are showing us is that a world with tons of “free stuff” — universal basic income, universal health care, free education, free housing — will n

>What cozy games are showing us is that a world with tons of “free stuff” — universal basic income, universal health care, free education, free housing — will not result in a breakdown of our society because “no one wants to work”. Who provides the health care, education and housing? Actually providing (a large part of) all these things, and many other goods and services that we expect to exist at reasonable prices, is much more tiring, and much less dopamine-inducing, than clicking a mouse while seated comfortably at your desk. The concrete example I favour is cleaning toilets. Every city-dwelling person uses a toilet regularly; toilets need to be cleaned periodically, and there's a lower bound on how much time and effort that takes. Thus some constant fraction of all human effort must be devoted to cleaning toilets. I can imagine a janitor simulation game, in which people click a few times to "clean", becoming popular. But I can't imagine anyone cleaning toilets for free in their spare time.