Behind the Wall Street Protest

I believe that people have a right to do something productive and to be compensated accordingly. Nobody should be shut out of the job market. Nobody should be forced to be poor and unemployed. It's destructive for people to be made to feel useless and denied a chance to participate in society.

This is a really difficult concept for me to wrap my head around. Honestly, it triggers some dark stuff in me.

Is someone MAKING you sit on your couch? That happens? Is this like when fat people say they're victims because corporations forced them to overeat? Really, you had NO INFLUENCE on the fork?

We ALL struggle with the issue of how to earn our keep, what we're going to be when we grow up. No one GETS this GIVEN to them. In my case I came up with a plan, saved up money, quit my job and went to graduate school, studied as an apprentice for four years, then opened my own business. It was ten years from inception to execution.

But when was it EVER different? When in this history of humankind have people become skilled tradesmen without some period of scut work and training and apprenticeship?

You DO have the right to pursue happiness. I personally guarantee it. You have a right to make contracts, agreements, on what your compensation will be and a right to have those agreements enforced. I also guarantee that. But do you have a right to make more money than anyone is willing to pay you? Does that lawncare guy have a RIGHT to MAKE ME HIRE HIM at $200 when I'd rather go without his services than pay $200?

This is where you start triggering me. You have a right to ASK for what you want to get. You have a right to NOT PERFORM services if you find the terms being offered as unacceptable. But you do not have a RIGHT to get compensation at a level higher than the market will pay for the goods and services you are offering.

Personally, I think artists are someone whose pay can't be negotiated fairly because the service they are providing is to the commons and patrons of the arts are scarce to find who are willing to step up to offer to pay for their music or murals or whatever. I think that fellowships ought to be offered as selected by a jury of citizens. The state poets, state musicians, state artists. We sort of do that now with graduate school fellowships. But these things are JURIED. You don't just DECLARE you are an artist who needs to be supported. Someone ELSE declares you to be one who is good enough to deserve community support.

But, yeah, I do think there are some jobs that should be GIVEN, I guess.

But nobody is forced to be unemployed. It's hard to figure out how to make money, it's true. But you are a human living on the skin of the planet earth and you are no different from any other human living on the face of the planet earth. It's a hardscrabble life. Figure something out.