I find this extremely cynical. It assumes that people can work and contribute only when pressed against the wall of survival. Like we are all some lazy assholes who would lay in bed all day long unless we’re forced to work. Fear of financial ruin or even death is not the only motivating factor, in fact, it might be the worst of them all.
The pandemic lockdowns illustrated the opposite; people liked being home for a short while and then they craved to return to their work places. Work provides much more than just money, it is a place of self-fulfilment, socialising, contribution, creativity, and so on. Not just high-ranking people, even people who work at shopping malls or clean rooms in hotels wanted to go back to work. Every kind of work can be meaningful to somebody (no exceptions), provided it is done by choice and not by coercion.
We like to work, we enjoy to contribute, even (or especially) in farming. I live in rural area and I know how hard it is. But it is also rewarding. Nothing makes a farmer happier than to see satisfied customers or sharing his surplus with others. Farming and providing self and others with food might be one of the most fulfilling pursuits I can think of.
But if people are pressed against the wall of survival then tell me in what sense is their work different from concentration camp labour?