One interesting anecdata point on the "everyone would just sit around and watch TV" front - my girlfriend and I just went through all of our reasonably close friends, and could only think of one person who might, possibly, not start or continue doing something challenging and interesting, given a "living wage" situation - and to be fair, we don't know that person very well.
The "everyone would just sit around" theory seems to be predicated on the belief that there are millions of people out there whom we don't personally know, but we somehow know well enough to believe they have no other interests that might blossom.
The "everyone would just sit around" theory seems to be predicated on the belief that there are millions of people out there whom we don't personally know, but we somehow know well enough to believe they have no other interests that might blossom.