Although in democracies we've largely selected that system. I've been to socialist places - Cuba and Albania before communism collapsed where a lot of people didn't do much but were still housed and fed (not very well - ration books) but no one seems to want to vote that stuff in.
The thing about those systems is you'd have to forgo the entire notion about private property and wealth as we currently know it for it to work out. Even then, there would be people who wouldn't want to work/contribute and the majority who would contribute the bare minimum (like you're saying). The percentage of people who'd work because they like it wouldn't be much higher than it is now. Or it might be even lower, as money wouldn't be as much of a factor in one's life.
It seems like a democratic system could both maintain private property and make sure all of their citizens have basic needs are satisifed (food, housing, education, medical). I don't see how these two are mutually exclusive, unless you take a hardline that taxation is theft.
I think more people take a soft line. Taxation isn't theft, but too much taxation is theft.
I don't know that I've ever heard this rationally articulated. I think it's a "gut feel" that at least some people have.
If taxes take 10% of what you make, you aren't happy about it, but most of us are OK with it. If taxes take 90% of what you make, that feels different. It feels like the government thinks it all belongs to them, whereas at 10%, it feels like "the principle is that it all belongs to you, but we have to take some tax to keep everything running".
So I think the way this plays out in practice is, the amount of taxes needed to supply everyones' basic needs is across the threshold in many peoples' minds. (The threshold of "fairness" or "reasonable" or some such, though it's more of a gut feel than a rational position.)
While they didn't do much at work and could coast forever, they still had to show up and sit out the hours. And this does seem to correlate highly with ration books. Which are also not amazon-fulfilled, but require going to a store, waiting in line, worring that the rations would run out, yada yada.
I'll take capitalism with all its warts over that workers paradise any day.
Well it was in the middle period when some communism collapsed but Albania was communist still. They did tourist day trips from Corfu to raise some hard currency. It's only about a mile from Albania at the closest point.
