In response to a recent post on this sub, here are my thoughts:
The phrase “earn a living” comments on more than the post-modern format of earning a living, it comments on the natural structure of life. At the base level, if you do not fight, if you do not work, you do not live. Again, I do not use work in exclusively the contemporary notion. Chopping firewood, building shelter, setting traps, stalking prey, foraging for food, weaving clothing, smithing tools, raising children, maintaining crops, raising livestock, etc., are all traditional examples of work.
There are a large number of definitions of the word work, but in this example a highly applicable one is, “sustained physical or mental effort to overcome obstacles and achieve an objective or result.” Every animal that has ever existed has been forced to work for a living, it just depends on your definition of work. Even with modern luxuries, if you do nothing, you will not live. You have to put in effort to live, i.e. you need to earn a living.