One last thing, apropos of nothing except my stream-of-consciousness typing and the feeling that somebody might bring it up here, is that some people have pointed out to me on Twitter that I should have studied students or retired people, who both seem pretty happy and don't work. I don't accept the comparison. Students essentially have a job with school and a camaraderie on campus that the unemployed have lost when they lose the water cooler. (It is, perhaps, important to note that people choose to go to school in order to find a job, and what happens to college attendance if the expectation of full-time work takes a hit?) Retirees, for their part, do seem happy overall, but those with comfortable retirements are living on savings that they earned through work and they have the pride of having worked to earn their retirement. This is one of the hardest things about imagining the demise of a full-time workforce: Where else could this sort of pride come from?
You're still focused on a person only being able to gain value to society by working.
You're also conflating working to survive (our day jobs) with doing tasks or that you would can choose to do (the student attending a class, the retiree building sawhorses, the 20 something contributing to OSS, the full time homemaker). Not being required to do the first doesn't mean you're suddenly not doing the second as well.
hiking: I just do light hiking, and all I need is a couple of sandwiches, a backpack and my boots. And plenty of water. Plenty of hills/mountains around helps, that's true
biking/rollerscating: you can get a decent used bike for about $100
picnic: just the food, and you need to eat anyway
board games: unless you need to switch the game every week I'd say you're covered with about $50 per year. We mainly play Settlers of Catan and Chess
lan party: I guess it depends on the games, we don't do this much anymore, but we're pretty old school when we do (CS, Starcraft 1, Worms World Party)
There's probably lots of other activities like that, for example we play soccer/foot tennis on a public field, and all it costs us is the price of the ball
Hiking: Buy boots and suitable clothes. Fuel to get to suitable location.
Biking/Rollerskating: Buy equipment. Fuel to get to suitable location.
Picnic: transportation supplies. Fuel to get to suitable location.
Board games: Expensive. Fuel to get to suitable location.
Lan party: Buy games. Fuel to get to suitable location.
All it costs is fuel, utilities, rent, and food. For someone with no income, that is all I can spend money on, and it has to be justifiable. Not "Oh, I play board games every once in a while", because I don't want to have to pass up on a job interview because I stupidly spent my transportation money on board games. Or whatever else.
Picnics, games, sports, lan parties, we just do them at home or on the public domain
hiking and other stuff needs some transportation, we either go with public transport or carpooling
I'm not saying I understand your situation, just that you don't necessarily need to spend a lot of money (or any) to have some fun with friends.