While I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment I think a lot of the economic thinking is a bit too simplistic, especially in our current age. For example, whether you invest in your government or not, your government will still be able to find funds for the war chest, by printing money if nothing else (or as it works nowadays, the central bank buying government securities). Another problem I can identify is that some hard work requires a lot education, we need nurses for example. What would happen if nurses only worked 20 hour weeks? Maybe there's a clever answer for this too, but I think we really need to think hard about this before we advocate anything politically. It makes a lot of sense to promote idleness as a virtue though, so go on and praise play (it is the hacker way, after all)!
For example, whether you invest in your government or not, your government will still be able to find funds for the war chest, by printing money if nothing else
That's a bit of a simplistic view of "government" as well, though. I mean, Greece's would certainly like to print some money right now :)
Yes, that's true, I also thought of the ECB hindering many national governments from doing this. But if Greece decided that it was time for war, they'd probably pull out of the euro project.
My point was that the economic model presented was too simplistic, that my model is also too simplistic doesn't distract from that point too much in my opinion.
