I’m Mad About How Creatives Get Paid

This post is a rough transcript of my video on this same topic. If you’d rather watch than read, you can do so here.

On a walk a few days ago, I listened to one of my favorite podcasts — Kayte Ferris’ Grow with Soul. In that particular episode, Kayte and her guest co-host, Sasha Glasgow, talked about anger and, more importantly, anger’s effectiveness at spurring action. In the very last minute of the show, Sasha summed it all up with a question to spur further thinking: what am I angry about, and what can I be angry about next so I can do things?

Left to walk my last block in silence with that query in my mind, I thought about the things that really get me riled up.

There’s no shortage, but in the midst of it all, there’s one thing I come back to again and again. I’m angry that the arts are valued less than other fields.

There’s an old joke that asks, “What do you call someone who graduated last in medical school? Doctor.”  There’s a corollary. “What do you call someone who graduated first in art school? Unemployed.”

I’m angry that I live in a world where talent in some sectors is more valued than talent in others.  (And I’m angry that my skills are the undervalued ones.) I’m angry at how much harder it is to make a living as an artist than as a programmer. Or an accountant. Or a dentist. 

I’m angry that, to get paid for entertaining and educating us, content creators have to prove their worth by working for free. And once they succeed, they also have to use their work sell us insurance and mattresses and monthly underwear subscriptions and all manner of other products that we probably want and need less than the art and entertainment we’re willingly consuming. I’m angry that creators have to ask their audiences to “buy me a coffee” because somehow, we value coffee more than we do creators. 
I’m angry at the pervasive belief that art should be free and music should be free and books should be free and content should be free because, while everyone should have access to all those things, creators still need to eat. Everyone should also have access to shelter and medical care, but landlords and doctors easily earn their livings. I’m angry that “starving artist” is a common turn of phrase, but “starving stockbrokers” are unheard of.

I’m angry that the counter-arguments are swirling in my head with every argument I make, that I feel like I have to push back and say… Doctors don’t work harder than performers. Enjoying your job does not make it worth less. Choosing a well-paid profession doesn’t make someone more deserving of a living wage. The way we collectively define value is arbitrary and the way we attach that value to compensation is broken.

I want to live in a better world than this. I want artists to have access to health care. I want creators to be paid as they develop their skills. I want musicians to be able to afford rent. I want writers to be able to write for a living instead of squeezing their work into the crevices of a job that pays.

I can’t singlehandedly change all of society, but maybe my anger will make someone think about what’s valuable to them and what’s not, and how they prioritize their spending, and who they think is worthy of earning a good living. Anger spurs action. Action spurs change, even if that change happens one mind at a time.

So what are you angry about?