On 12/12/2019 9:47 AM, AMuzi wrote:


Humans defy simple analysis. There are many people who, for some large
or small part of their lives, prefer relatively unstructured activity.
Living in a truck and screening shirts is not overly remunerative but
there's no time clock either. Nothing wrong with any or either.

For example, check out the economist Leavitt's analysis of Chicago
street gangs, members of which earned well below minimum wage with
significant risks and yet preferred 'street life' to a better paying
regular job with shorter hours. Or poets for that matter.

I happen to know a very skilled poet. (At least, I'm told she's skilled.
I seem to be poem deaf.) She has two published books and countless
published poems, has been asked to teach many classes and seminars on
poetry, has had poems have been featured on nationally syndicated
broadcasts, etc.

But she also has a full time job, plus a husband who's an engineer.

I suspect if the poet-to-engineer ratio ever got too large, society
would crumble. We can afford only so many poets.


--
- Frank Krygowski