Quote Originally Posted by Universal Mind View Post
The majority of people would not try hard at all in school if they were not rewarded and punished by grades.
Just because you say so, doesn't make it true. The majority of people would probably slack at first, especially with an abrupt change. People would do poorly and not learn anything. Then after a few years in a boring menial labor job, they might decide to go back to school and learn new skills.

Quote Originally Posted by Universal Mind View Post
Why would the majority of people try hard at work if nobody in the system has financial incentives for extra good work?
For the same reason that many (if not most) people have hobbies that they work hard at. Sure, not a lot of people are going to want to do hard boring work, but these days automation is really up to the point that most of those jobs can be eliminated anyway. All that is really left is all of those jobs that don't actually need someone to excel at, they just need someone to do them. If its a choice between trudging through a job without putting much thought or caring into it and not having a job at all (and no pay either) I think you'll find that those people who don't qualify for anything else will be more than happy to fill those positions.