But don't we already have a society that only has 2% of people working on food production? If that is considered the only non-luxury/required good, then most of us are working to get more luxuries.
The thing that most people miss is that the majority of the world doesn't operate the way the US does (including things like food production). You have to look at the system as a whole. And it is extremely destructive and inhospitable when you evaluate it objectively and holistically.
I know that the popular world-view for internet technologists is very different from that of course. I saw the Hans Rosling TED talk. I used to share the same rose-colored worldview. I also used to believe all of the propaganda put out on television.
I now know that the world we live is far more violent and dysfunctional than we are led to believe. We have very deep structural problems starting with a Social Darwinistic worldview that leads to massive inequality and waste. I believe that technology is working rather directly against all of those negative legacy factors.
And I also believe that technology is currently improving the situation and will continue to do so as things like ultra-local food and energy production aided by nanotechnology become mainstream. I also think that within about twenty years unaugmented humanity will be obsoleted by advanced, vastly superior AI, and that will eliminate the current severe problems with worldviews and social structures holding back technological advancement. I am a little worried we might run into World War III before we get those things online though.
That is certainly not the only required good, but I would argue it is the #2 behind water consumption. I also wouldn't disagree that most folks are working for more luxuries. Remember I agreed that we should be working for fewer luxuries.
The issue with food is that when you factor in everything, to include environmental impact, good sustainable food is actually very expensive. I am also including the logistics that go into food delivery and the significant amount of waste and impact it causes [1].
Food is basically a solved problem. Priority #1 is medical care IMO. Housing is expensive, but really Japanese-style closet hotels can solve that problem for ultracheap if needed (as I understand it's mostly zoning laws preventing it right now). If we can get medical care to the point where, say, the 1970s standard of care is as cheap as food is, then we're basically at post-scarcity.
People will always work; some people just want to do stuff for fun. If we can get the need for employment down to that low percentage, then we're de facto there IMO. At that point, there are several ways to fill in the missing pieces; a government-funded (or even ideally endowment-funded) basic income, food becoming a gimmick to attract customers rather than a commodity the same way water is today, the equivalent of public libraries and bookstores for housing, etc. Money probably won't be an issue in any case; if work is done by that percentage of people who want to work, they won't necessarily need a salary; I can see money being limited to a mechanism for regulating large-scale resource use.
