In concrete terms, material security frees us to devote ourselves to more than subsistence. Only when we have managed our daily acts of bodily housekeeping, only when the dishes are done and the bread is won, do we have time and energy for the improvidence of art—and only when we are assured of obtaining the means of survival can we create oddities that the market may not reward. In less sober terms, economic justice is a prerequisite for humanity because it is a prerequisite for the pursuit of superfluity.

Becca Rothfeld, All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess (2024)