[-empyre-] OSW: open source writing in the network

[Rob Myers]

> 
>   The same way they do now, largely unsupported by capital. 
> 
> And what of all the workers who currently are supported by capital?

Assuming we are talking about the few cultural producers for whom this
support is material, their social capital has been shown to be
transferrable to new business models very effectively.

> Unemployment? Pretty harsh outcome for the vast majority of employed
> cultural workers if capitalism remains, and thus unemployment is a
> gateway to destitution.

Most cultural workers are under-employed and under-paid. Economic
studies of musicians and artists demonstrate this. To gain more of them
"employment" and to improve the "pay" of those who are "employed"
requires strategies that do not benefit capital via big culture directly.

> Is that what we want? Fewer people to be paid for cultural production?

If we want *more* people paid for "cultural production" then letting go
of the illusions of the culture industry and understanding how artists
actually make a living rather than berating free culture for failing to
reproduce those illusions is a good first step.

- Rob.