cpalmer, there's a coupla things there:
The first is the issues you have brought up and othres have talked about them. You can find my posts on the issues here:
What if Everyone Followed Their Dreams? There’d be no garbage pickers! | Mind-Manual Why “What if Everyone Did That?” Isn’t an Argument | Mind-Manual
Beyond that, I'm more interested in why you're asking that question (just like you are). I agree with some of your points. For example, I recall reading that there's enough food produced in the world today that everyone can be comfortably fed and no one would starve. And I believe that if enough people do "awaken", we can move towards that world more. We may even decide
to have fewer kids, as that's basically the main problem causing most of the others.
I agree with your idea of appreciation of those who make our lifestyles possible. That said, you sound like you feel a bit guilty about that. It sounds like you feel a bit "guilty" for even thinking of doing this while others work in "drudgery". I can only posit that there may be two reasons for this:
1. You believe life is supposed to be hard and you're cheating by having an "easy" life, especially when others around you are saying their lives are so hard. For all our beliefs and efforts in egalitarianism, life is still "unfair" (life is life, unfair/fair is labels our consciousness applies). You can make it your life's mission to fix this unfairness if you'd like, but I wouldn't feel guilty about it. Basically, "life" is a bit like a game and has some rules and if you "break" one of them, you'll feel guilty.
2. Everybody "should" be able to enjoy the same sort of things. This may be some sort of belief in universalisation. That you "should" do what you would recommend to everyone.
I hope some of this resonates with you and helps you to understand yourself better. If not, reply back and I may be able to come up with more ideas.