Free to be Artists, Working for Free

WITH THE ADVENT OF the internet, and CD buring, and copy pasting, and such like high techs, its become much easier to read writing or listen to music without paying for it, and this is what millions of people have been choosing to do over the last couple of decades or so. Intellectual property theft is not a crime limited to only a few criminal types with criminal minds. Intellectual property theft is what happens when the bank is left unlocked on main street and john and jane doe are allowed in at all times, unsupervised. The average american, it turns out, is a criminal. After overpaying writers, singers, and actors for years, we're finally getting even. I haven't bought a CD in years. One can imagine what a bummer it would be to make millions of dollars as a famous singer songwriter, the suddenly find your income dwindling as your recordings are stolen everywhere. One must note, however, that however henous intellectual property theft is, it, like the internet itself, is a leveling force, an ultimately democratizing force mitigating power at the top, this business of stealing from the corporations, from the wealthy. Britney Spears (selling) dance lessons, rappers workin' down at mickey dee's....yo. If artists shouldn't be fabulously wealthy, should they be paupers, or merely gainlfully employed elsewhere, with art as a hobby? In a future socialist utopia, everything will be free, prosperity will be unlimited, and nobody will care whether there's a paycheck in the mail. Think of the millions of good folks banging away in their basements, mixing those lead guitars and drums, the ones crouched over their keyboards trying to create yet another unappreciated verbal masterpiece, the thousands of painters and craftspeople unrecognized; the great unwashed masses of creationers. Welcome to the club. We'rs all starving artists at heart. Shouldn't we all have some sort of job directly related to the production and distribution of food, clothing, and or shelter? First comes the free energy, vis a vis solar radiation. Then , a litle back engineering using stolen alien technology, advances in agri and medicine, and better resource allocation, and we're off to the races. Free from material want, free to all become artists, working for free.