Dirt: Cutting Class
“In the 2020s it feels increasingly punishing to survive as a writer, let alone build a real world community centred on art and ideas. Soaring costs, falling wages, unpaid labour and the threat of AI, as well as the lingering aftershocks of the pandemic, to name but a few factors, have made it increasingly difficult to earn a living without vast ge
... See moreFor me, a telling anecdote that first clued me into this hypothesis was when I debated Jacobin writer Meagan Day in 2018. When I pointed out that very few Americans are financially destitute, she responded that “it’s not just destitution, it’s disappointment”, and proceeded to describe her own frustration with the two unpaid internships she went ... See more
Noah Smith • The Elite Overproduction Hypothesis
Today, the financial precarity associated with creative professions means that those who pursue art are typically well off: someone whose family has an income of $100,000 is twice as likely to become an artist, actor, musician, or author than someone from a family with $50,000 income. And those from households with an annual income of $1 million ar... See more