Occasionally I get taken to task because I'm a creative person and I'm actually concerned about the business end of my art — for example — and the business end of being a writer.
Some people even go to the trouble of telling me that I'm "selling out" because I'm concerned with getting paid for my work.
I suppose what I find ironic about that is that if I turn the tables on them and ask doctors why they're not healing people for free or ask accountants why they are not doing people's taxes for them for free I get met with all kinds of huffy attitudes!
Which leaves me contemplating that age-old question of why anybody who is in a creative field somehow shouldn't be treated as equally important when it comes to being compensated for their work?
I mean the primary reason I expect to get paid for my artwork is that... well... art supplies cost money, and just like anybody else out there I have bills that need to be paid and I have to buy food.
As we say around here "everybody's gotta eat!"
I suppose the thing that puzzles me a little bit about it is how we arrived at this space in which creativity allegedly has less value?
Is it simply that Art and Writing has a less tangible way of passing along "value?"
But it's not just creativity. Mrs. Denmarkguy works as a therapist and sees lots and lots of clients, quite a few of whom balk little bit at the fact that she not only charges for her sessions but because she is really good at what she does her sessions are not exactly cheap.
You get what you pay for!
Quite a while back we went through the whole discussion of what services are worth, as we realigned her fee schedule to actually reflect market price rather than wishful thinking.
And so, much like a creative, does a doctor of the mind not have the same right to earn a living as a doctor of the body? Does a broken mind have less value than a broken bone? Or somebody who makes a living from something that is not as creative?
A very long time ago, back when I still lived in Texas, I did a lot of freelance work doing original art for advertising and helping people put together corporate newsletters. One of the particularly insidious practices in the advertising and marketing business was the clients who expected potential service providers to submit an example "on spec."
Of course, what would often end up happening was that the client — or potential client, as it were — would take the information and proposal you provided on spec and use it and declare that "they didn't actually need your services."
It didn't take me long to reach a point in which I refused all spec work, even for very large clients that could potentially make me fairly wealthy. I'm not here to be taken advantage of as a source of free information!
Now you might ask "but what about Hive?"
Well this is completely different in the sense that I'm writing here on an entirely voluntary basis, I'm not being employed by Hive and this is not a job. This is simply blogging, from my own enjoyment. The fact that I may or may not earn some rewards is simply a bonus that makes this community more attractive than a number of other communities where (in fact) I still do submit blogs.
In the end, however, the saying "we all have to eat" continues to hold true. And I don't think it is particularly fair to expect people in creative fields to somehow forego fair compensation just because they don't have a doctorate or something similar for lawyers or engineers.
But that's just my opinion! Your mileage may vary!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!
Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!
Greetings bloggers and social content creators! This article was created via PeakD, a blogging application that's part of the Hive Social Content Experience. If you're a blogger, writer, poet, artist, vlogger, musician or other creative content wizard, come join us! Hive is a little "different" because it's not run by a "company;" it operates via the consensus of its users and your content can't be banned, censored, taken down or demonetized. And that COUNTS for something, in these uncertain times! So if you're ready for the next generation of social content where YOU retain ownership and control, come by and learn about Hive and make an account!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly and uniquely for this platform — NOT posted anywhere else!)
Created at 2024-06-05 01:00 PDT
1161/2418
My library district just posted a job announcement for another branch. The job description and hours are identical to mine now. However, the starting pay they are offering is also identical to what they pay me after a decade, down to the penny.
Librarians need to eat, too.
And eating is getting massively expensive.
Are my hours and experience worth so little? Maybe I want my hours back instead at this point.
Wow, that stings!
Do the new hires have masters degrees now?
My author friend, age 60+, says all the editing jobs go to 20- and 30-somethings.
And not because they work for lower wages.
They get paid MORE than those with decades of experience.
And let us not even get started on AI taking over...
As a book editor, I can vouch for that @carolkean.
I lost much work as a technical writer to outsourcing 20-odd years ago. Hard to compete with someone with an English degree from a US or British University who's living in SE Asia where $8/hour was considered good pay.
As an editor, I'm increasingly facing redundancy to both AI and younger editors using lots of AI to work faster but not necessarily better.
Even Microsoft Word's default autocorrect dislikes some proper punctuation. I'm even less sure AI knows what it is doing, particularly when constructing sentences above an 8th-grade level or in a technical field where specific terminology matters..
No, these jobs do not require an MLS degree.
Our budget has not been keeping pace with inflation for years. There was a study a few years ago to get us on track, but they still haven't completed the transition to account for tenure after 2 years of slow updates. I get it, we're funded by taxes, and that's bad for everyone, but we also provide a service our communities actually value.
Dang, that's harsh, Jacob! Sounds almost identical to something my wife experienced while working for Bank of America Corporate... the unspoken term for it is "managed attrition" in which long-time employees are demoralized into leaving, thereby saving the company from paying certain benefits that are lower for new hires. Although, they mostly wanted her gone for being really good at her job... and they didn't want to pay the substantial bonuses their system was allowing her to make...
Librarians need to eat, to. As do musicians. And artists. And arborists.
Whereas I'm not big into liberal claptrap, there is a growing sensation that more and more places are "hostile work environments."
Millions of us pay $$ for video games, phones, movies, tech - but ask someone to pay for a song on Spotify or bandcamp, and they slink away. Ask them to tip a blogger. Or subscribe to a news source.
ENTERTAINMENT -- the Hollywood celebrities get millions, but what about the screenwriter who writes the weekly episodes of shows like "Friends" and "Star Trek" - how well were they paid?
Traveling minstrels told stories - and earned their keep.
Court jesters. Clowns.
These days, we want free art and music but we pay billions (collectively) for the tech to listen to it.
Go figure.
It's pretty messed up.
We don't have cable/network TV anymore... but much of the time to rent a movie to stream is $10-$20, but where does that money actually go? Do the people who made the movie actually see much of it, or does it all in in Netflix and Amazon's coffers?
I see it in a very interesting first hand way these days. When my wife and I take our artwork to a fair, conference or crafts show we frequently come away from a weekend with $1500-$2000 in sales. Put the exact same items up for sale online, and people practically expect them to be free. I can't sell ANYthing online.
And yet, they pay $100s for an NFT of what is little more than the pixellated image of a Windows 3.1 era icon!
Can't agree with you more, some professions people are paid to the hilt yet others simply frowned upon, each brings value yet this concept has been skewered by people over time.
Sadly, that is true. "Value" is such a nebulous thing, and we have really lost sight of what provides the actual value in our lives...
Modern living has deviated from where true value is derived.
Thanks for sharing.
I love the flowers you were able to photograph.
Thank you!
😍
Congratulations @denmarkguy! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
Your next target is to reach 74000 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out our last posts:
If doctors and all other professionals get paid why wouldn't you get paid, you worked Soo hard for the payment you are expecting.