Even Karl Marx, champion of workers, argued that ‘the artist must earn money in order to be able to live and to create, but he must by no means live and create for the purpose of making money.’ To my way of thinking, it is criminally ignorant to suggest that some people’s labor shouldn’t be viewed as labor. In promoting the idea that musicians should make “art for art’s sake” we condone a system that essentially eats its young. I think cultural economists know this. And the really sad thing is that the chronic poverty of artists has been transmuted into some kind of heroic vision of producing art for art’s sake. We simply shouldn’t view poverty as a noble choice.
Jennifer Lena. (via marathonpacks)