Well it's still pretty complicated, because there's no option to go out and hunt for a living. You can't earn food without participating in society, which is a very complicated system of rules that few of us have any influence over (but a small minority have large influence over). Changing those rules to make them more in line with the idea "work or starve" would not be simple. (What about tax? Farming subsidies? What if someone gets a monopoly on the cheapest staple food in an area? What about genetically modified crop patents?)

Also, if it became common to motivate people through starvation, life would quickly become quite terrible. (Just look at the things that used to happen during the industrial revolution. Dangerous child labour, terrible working conditions, lives and limbs sacrificed in the name of progress.)

I'm glad we have idle people who don't want to work, because that way the guys in charge have to make sure that working is at least better than not working. In the not too distant future there won't be jobs for unremarkable people, and I don't really want them to starve.