For me, and probably many others, “creative stuff” IS a necessity for our mental health and general well-being. They make life vastly better and therefore have great value to me. I am not convinced economics have much to do with people not wanting to pay for creative works. It is more the expectations of this generation that creative things should be free if they can be viewed or downloaded from the internet. Poor people have always gone to the movies and concerts and read books.

I think writers clinging to the old model of book publishing are going to be very disappointed when (if) it drastically changes, as music publishing did. It’s time to start thinking about how to deal with those changes. I think it is going to take a whole new model of compensation not yet in use. Discouraging as that is, perhaps it will lead to a better way that benefits more than superstars.