Re: Paul Krugman holds forth on the future of publishing

Because that money has to be obtained from someone else, 
either voluntarily or by force. And the only way to obtain 
money voluntarily is to provide a product that a person is 
willing to pay for in the economic environment that prevails 
at the time. But if you support taking money from people by 
force (eg grants from taxation) to support writers, then you 
should explain -- why just writers,  and why not buggy-whip 
makers, typesetters, typewriter repairers and all the other 
professions that have found themselves being left behind by 
progress?

If you like to write, that's your privilege. If I don't want 
to fund you, that should be mine. A genuinely free market 
remains the most efficient way of getting people paid for 
providing value.

Jon.

Lady K'Lyssia wrote:
>  Why shouldn't we be able to make a living off our writing? 


Carol Hightshoe "A Time To..." - EPPIE Award Finalist // 
Tiptree Award Nominee Award winning editor of The Lorelei 
Signal and Sorcerous Signals e-zines Don't Write What You 
Know; Write What You Care About -- Passionately!> From: 
jonjermey-sFbbPxZDHXw0n/[email protected]> > 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.>
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> 

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