Wouldn't that argument predict that the united states and most of Europe should collapse any second now? Countries where failure to find work leads to an actual threat of hunger are mostly very poor and corrupt developing nations.
Indeed this is the big reason of why economic growth rates in rich countries and especially those of them with low inequality, is slower. Because the primary factor that pushes people to work, is much weaker. It's not the only reason (another big reason is that poorer countries are playing a catch-up adopting technology invented by rich ones which is always easier than inventing it first), but yes, one of the big reasons.
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.
