JBrown72073 at cs.com wrote:
>
>
> It might be bourgeois ideology (created by conditions under bourgeois
> supremacy), but there is a political economy to the struggle, too, and if we want
> working-class writers to write we must contribute to making that possible.
> Otherwise they end up paid by Soros, not by us.
A century ago there was considerable discussion among socialists as to the "support" of artists under socialism. One of the resolutions offered was called, I think, a "pauper's wage" or something like that. The idea was that if someone was willing to live on a rather minimal income for the sake of maximum leisure to write, paint, etc. he/she would receive that 'wage,' without having to earn it. The advent of the internet has more or less solved the second half of the 'problem,' at least for writers: the cost of producing (publishing) the text after it had been composed.
But Jenny's general approach is fundamental, I think. No one particularly "deserves" a reward for producing a text, a painting, a musical score -- but _we_ gain by making it possible for such production to go on. "Desert" (or merit for that matter) is such a wobbly concept that it corrupts any discussion in which it is invoked.
Carrol