Many Western nations pay people to not work. Which is an odd thing. At least in a communist system, pay is unrelated to whether someone works or not. Some of the workers out of the goodness of their own hearts, or from some political ambition do some, and the process grinds slowly and inefficiently on. Australia has a very different, though not totally novel approach to economic enlightenment. Australia pays people for not working. The less work people do, the more money the government pays them for not doing it.

In spite of the words of encouragement, there is a very real disincentive to do any useful work. The more work one does the more dole money they lose, if a dole recipient earns more than $40 per week, then half of the additional money is taken away from them, but the real cost is much higher. If one continues to get part-time work, they are eventually accused of not wanting to work, but only of wanting to supplement the dole. The punishment for working is not swift, but very severe. There is a risk of being cut off the dole.

The questioners at the appropriate government department virtually ask as the fortnightly forms are handed in: "Are you sure you didn't do any useful work? Are you sure that you completely wasted your time, and were totally unproductive? OK then you can have your dole payment".

The reader is left to judge the merits of such a system.