When people say “Eh, it’s a living” are they referring to simply being alive? I think people sometimes look too much into some idioms.
In the natural world, you don’t actually deserve to be alive and need to compete for it. In societies I would argue it’s what the society can put up with. You don’t deserve to be alive, you simply are or are not … or the many thousands of states in between. By default, you are going to need to adapt regardless to keep alive. I can see “living” referring to that adaptation, but then again, I can understand polysemy.
When people say “Eh, it’s a living” are they referring to simply being alive? I think people sometimes look too much into some idioms.
In the natural world, you don’t actually deserve to be alive and need to compete for it. In societies I would argue it’s what the society can put up with. You don’t deserve to be alive, you simply are or are not … or the many thousands of states in between. By default, you are going to need to adapt regardless to keep alive. I can see “living” referring to that adaptation, but then again, I can understand polysemy.