Why SHOULDN'T musicians be paid?

["Rick Walker" <looppool@cruzio.com>]

Phil asked:

"Why should musicians be paid,why has our (western) society decided this 
is 
correct? would the
benefits to the world in a society where no musicians are paid outweigh 
the 
benefits to the fewer
musicians who do get paid....?"


An equally valid question might also be:

"Why SHOULDN'T musicians be paid?..................especiallly if they 
have 
trained hard and dilligently for all of their lives;
eschewing money,  health benefits,  living in homes that they own,  giving 
everything they can possibly give
to their artistry or their craft."

"Why should we put monetary value on a Doctors' profession or a Lawyers' 
profession or an excellent Bricklayers' profession
for all of their intelligence, incredible devotion to their vocation in 
terms of education and their considerable expertise in their
chosen field and then turn around and say,  "why value a musician for 
doing 
the same thing with potentiall just as much investment
of time, intelligence, hard work and creativity."

******************************
I was trained from a relatively early age to be a  scientist:  groomed by 
my 
parents to go in the path they choose.

I gave up prestige, money, social standing, security, even health (I just 
went to the dentist for the first time in 20 years because
it was difficult to afford it)  because I eschewed that path (and the 
approval of my parents)  to commit my entire adult life to music.
I did it because I felt called to do it.    In a sense, I did it because I 
had to on some spiritual level.

I watched as most of the musicians I knew who even attempted this path, 
dropped out, one by one to go back to school or
to take lucrative jobs in software fields (or even crashed an burned on 
drugs, alchohol and mental illness) or to raise families.

    The last decade of my life, especially,  the air has become rarified 
to 
see the number of people who stuck this tough life
out in the Northern California where I live.   It's sometimes lonely to be 
quite frank to be a professional musician AND to
try and be an artist at the same time.

I'm really, really proud that I never gave up.  I'm proud that I 
sacrificed 
everything I sacrificed so that I could devote my entire
life to music and music alone.

Why on earth shouldn't I make a living doing 
it............................even the really shitty living that I make 
doing it now?

Why would musicians on this list of extreme creativity begrudge me making 
a 
living doing this thing that some of us have
sacrificed most of our lives to be involved with?

*************
I have no problems with people who specifically eschew professionalism or 
musical careers because it impinges (as Paul Haslem so eloquently
put it) on their ability to be creative.   I don't think everyone should 
strive to be a professional musician.   I think there are many artists
in the world who are incredible and that whether they make a living or not 
has nothing to do with the quality of their music.

I got incredibly lucky........I was able to be a professional musician and 
yet ALWAYS have a fully creative project going along the entire
length of my career (though rarely did those artistic projects add much to 
my actually living financially).

Again:    I can't fathom why people on this , of all lists, would begrudge 
me the desire to devote all of my time to music that a professional
musical life affords me?