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Comment by nikanj | Hacker News Reader

"Why try to engage in the arts if you won't make money" is perhaps the most capitalist dystopian statement I've read the whole year.

I sing with my friends regularly. I'm not expecting to ever get paid a dime.

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I don’t think they mean “getting rich,” they mean “enough to get by”.

Many art forms can and should require more time and investment than simply getting together with friends a couple of times a month.

Even then, for some people getting enough free time to do that is a struggle. They need to monetise their spare time by working second jobs, and so on, instead of pursuing art.

"Enough to get by" is still a variant of "make money"

Have people forgotten how enjoyable dancing, painting, making music or any of the other arts are, even if you don't get paid a penny

But if you don't get paid a penny, unless you're born into wealth, you will need to do some other endavour for most of your day if you don't want to starve. The point is that all that's going to be left to do to prevent starvation is the crappiest jobs - all the enjoyable ones are being automated away.

> all the enjoyable ones are being automated away.

You keep asserting this but I have to say that I don’t know that to be true.

Can you explain a little more concretely why you draw this conclusion?

Precisely. The percentage of people making a living from their creative pursuit is vanishingly small.

We should be looking to move that number up, not down.

That is the capitalist dystopia we live in. I don't like it either. If we lived in a post-capitalist society, AI wouldn't be the threat it is.

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