Re: Paul Krugman holds forth on the future of publishing

Nothing esoteric about this; it's the kind of question wage 
tribunals deal with all the time. Basically, a 'fair wage' 
for writing is the minimum that an average person with the 
requisite skills and an alternative source of income would 
accept in return for the effort involved in producing a 
novel. But because all novels are different, let's be more 
flexible and say it's the minimum that _that person_ would 
accept in return for the effort. So if Steven King would 
produce a novel for $50,000, then paying him $1,000,000 for 
it is a gross misallocation of resources which could be 
better spent elsewhere, just as it is to pay someone $1,000 
for a novel when they would have written it for nothing. The 
degree of misallocation gives us an indication of how badly 
the market is malfunctioning due to artificial restrictions 
on trade and distribution.

Jon.


Mary E Tyler wrote:
>> Why in hell would authors get paid after they obtained the fair amount
>> of money they deserve for the number of hours they worked?
> 
> 
> How much is a "fair amount"?
> 
> I know people who make $10/hr for writing (and certain people who make  
> much, MUCH less) and those who make $200/hr for writing (and sometimes  
> much, MUCH more). How much is "fair?"
> 
> Are all novels worth the same?
> 
> dej

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