I don't think there is any evidence that people are motivated to work because of the threat of starvation. The most economically productive nations on the plan

I don't think there is any evidence that people are motivated to work because of the threat of starvation. The most economically productive nations on the planet are well outside any risk of starvation, by a huge margin. This line of thinking is not a part of serious economic theory, it just comes from an extremely primitive high school level understanding of economics.