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Kevin Shane's avatar

You’re right. It is weird. But I would say these people are “broke”, not broke.

Many jobs in media or the arts pay low because it’s a winner take all market. Two dozen playwrights will write bad plays for years in a bohemian community before someone emerges with a big hit and makes a ton of money.

You can only bide your time trying to become the winner while making $30K if you’ve got support from elsewhere.

tl;dr, only the rich can afford to be poor artists.

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Jun 18, 2023
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Kevin Shane's avatar

With respect to, “real rich kids”, I’d say it’s all relative.

The children of college grads much more likely to graduate college than the children of non college grads. More then 2:1. Among college students, the kids or degree holders are 2X as likely to attend a highly selective college than their first generation counterparts.

Finally, college educated households are 4 times wealthier than non college households.

Put it all together and we have this: graduates from highly selective schools come from dramatically more wealth than the average American. Even if they’re underemployed.

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Jun 18, 2023
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Kevin Shane's avatar

I gotcha. And rest assured, I only break these stats out online. I promise I don’t make a hobby out of telling underemployed art school grads how much better off they are than most people because like you said, it’s little comfort.

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