# As a Progressive, I am throwing in the towel

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-progressive-i-am-throwing-in-the-towel/924912>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [November 6, 2020, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-progressive-i-am-throwing-in-the-towel/924912 "2020-11-06T18:31:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 189

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2020, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-progressive-i-am-throwing-in-the-towel/924912/189 "2020-12-06T04:21:06Z")

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> [@k9bfriender](#):
>
> Getting up at 6AM, working your ass off at something, whether or not you enjoy it, and not getting home until 9PM for a couple years, that’s not the sort of thing that people are going to do without a hope of reward.

Well, plenty of people actually do put in that kind of voluntary creative or caring labor when they don’t expect a financial benefit from it.

I’m not disagreeing with you that financial benefits are a very powerful and widespread form of incentive, or that the capitalist aspects of a mixed economy often perform a useful role in harnessing those incentives to drive development and innovation. I just think you’re unnecessarily painting yourself into a corner if you try to claim that only financial benefits constitute an adequate motive for anybody to throw themselves into long periods of all-consuming devotion to work.

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