The psychology’s a little more complicated. What you’re talking about leads to the idea that labor should be compensated less if it’s enjoyable, which is bullshit. Labor is labor. Some people would gladly work for free (open source software, volunteers at charities, retired folks looking for something to do, etc), but would be offended if you offered them a low compensation. Because working “for free”, they’re getting some sort of non-monetary value out of their work, whereas offering to pay them a low wage implies that you think their work is worth that little amount, which is itself worth less than the intrinsic motivation. There’s a valley of productivity where a lot of people would actually probably work more without austerity capitalism, but how they allocate that labor would likely change to not benefit the owning class. In other words, wages are not about motivation. They are about allocation.
The psychology’s a little more complicated. What you’re talking about leads to the idea that labor should be compensated less if it’s enjoyable, which is bullshit. Labor is labor. Some people would gladly work for free (open source software, volunteers at charities, retired folks looking for something to do, etc), but would be offended if you offered them a low compensation. Because working “for free”, they’re getting some sort of non-monetary value out of their work, whereas offering to pay them a low wage implies that you think their work is worth that little amount, which is itself worth less than the intrinsic motivation. There’s a valley of productivity where a lot of people would actually probably work more without austerity capitalism, but how they allocate that labor would likely change to not benefit the owning class. In other words, wages are not about motivation. They are about allocation.