From what I've read, people did make a living writing short stories at one point. You probably still had to write a LOT.
There were many more pubs to publish to and more people bought short story anthologies.
There were many more pubs to publish to and more people bought short story anthologies.
https://www.realestatewitch.com/rent-to-income-ratio-2022/
and
https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/diff...
and
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/04/how-ame...
So, depends on what you mean by steady. ~3%-ish growth (at the worst) in my book is not steady.
But yea, totally less expensive and wider availability of high quality food is great to be reminded of, thanks!
These days, so many fascistic surveillance technologies have been deployed to squeeze the downtime out of existence for most jobs. You could have a 1950s day job (well, if you were middle class) and be a writer, but you can't really have a 2020s day job and be a writer, because jobs are so much more stressful.
This is disproven by the large majority of authors having a day job. Most people can’t have a day job and be a writer but the sentence is just as true as “Most people can’t be a writer.”