 Now, today, survival does not necessitate the same sort of constant and conscious effort. The welfare state has, in fact, made it possible for people to survive without any effort at all in some cases, aside from whatever minimal exertions are necessary to walk from the couch to the refrigerator and then back to the couch again to grab another armful of food that you didn't pay for. And even those of us who work are still not fighting to survive the way that people in the past did.