Re: Re: Paul Krugman holds forth on the future of publishing

We need to distinguish here between 'production' and 'adding 
value'. If I write a novel on 300 sheets of white paper I 
have been productive, but I probably haven't added value, 
because people who in the past would have paid good money 
for 300 sheets of white paper will not now pay that.

How do I determine if I have added 'demonstrable' value? By 
trying to sell the stuff. How do I determine if my 
novel-writing was the most productive way of spending my 
time? By trying to sell the stuff in a free market, and 
seeing if I make more money than I could have made doing 
anything else. And a 'free market' doesn't involve 
suppressing or restricting access to competing reading 
material. That just turns everyone else into losers.

If the burger shop would have paid me $5000 for the same 
time spent flipping burgers, and I lose money on my novel, 
then I haven't been using my time in the most productive way 
and society is more than $5000 worse off as a result. This 
is all just Economics 101. If I've got more than $5000 worth 
of fun out of writing my novel then that's OK, but if not, 
then I'm not entitled to sit and whine about how society 
'ought' to pay me better. I just need to get a real job.

So -- getting back to basics -- my initial response was to 
the claim "Writers deserve to make a living". No. Nobody 
deserves to make a living unless they produce something 
somebody else values sufficiently to pay for it.

Unfortunately the wrong-headed belief that producing words 
on paper is somehow inherently virtuous and should be 
rewarded regardless of its commercial value runs deep: maybe 
it's a hangover from our largely pre-literate ancestors. I 
don't know about the US but here in Australia there are 
plenty of tax-funded grants for writers and other creative 
artists; and as a result we see a steady stream of 
unsaleable rubbish presented under the name of 'art' by 
people who could be spending their time getting off welfare 
and doing something useful.

Jon.

Mary E Tyler wrote:
>> hey choose to write, that's great. If not, that's
>> great too. But there's no reason why I should subsidise
>> people who choose to write when they could be doing
>> something else, any more than I should subsidise people who
>> choose to play video games.
> 
> Because, um, people who write actually produce something and playing  
> video games isn't productive? We generally pay people who produce  
> stuff... oh wait, that's only stuff of value, which in your thinking  
> writing doesn't have any value.
> 
>> I have no problem at all with people getting paid what
>> others are willing to pay them. But it irritates the heck
>> out of me when 'creative' people claim special exemption
>> from the laws of economics that apply to everyone else, and
>> particularly when legislators back them up.
> 
> Ah yes, but it bothers me even more when someone argues that something  
> that has demonstrable value doesn't have value simply because he  
> doesn't value it. You can't ignore economics: if you demand lower  
> prices than the market will bear, you get shortage.
> 
> dej
> 

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