before we shed a tear for these erstwhile celebrities let's indeed take a look at the economics. in statistical terms their curse (and I will argue, their bless

before we shed a tear for these erstwhile celebrities let's indeed take a look at the economics. in statistical terms their curse (and I will argue, their blessing) is kurtosis. earnings by entertainers (such as in pro sport, film, TV, music) are not normally distributed but heavily skewed towards the left. the few at the top vastly overperform the rest. thus you have pewdiepie earning millions and the vast majority losing money. the same happens in film, for example: the lucky few thousand A-listers earn millions while the millions of other actors bus tables. there are several reasons for this kurtosis: mostly having to do with vertical differentiation---the characteristic in which one product is clearly preferred over another. at the cinema, for example, each movie is priced identically and yet one is clearly preferred than the other. this leads to a few films becoming runaway successes and the rest barely breaking even. there is a positive feedback loop that magnifies the effect over time. you see this quite clearly in the youtube ecosystem as well. youtube videos are "priced" identically; and so obviously there is a clear preference for one over the other, as there is a clear preference of a performer over another. risky careers are sexy. these performers may bemoan their situation but in fact it is precisely this kurtosis that gives them their fame. after all the opposite of a kurtocracy is a mediocracy[1], in which rather than the extraordinary dominating, the ordinary dominates. another fantastic label for such industries is "humdrum" industries[2]. nursing, teaching, bookkeeping, dentistry, engineering, accounting, retail are all mediocracies in which employees do not face extremes of success and failure. some of these fields are clearly available to youtubers should they find their current path untenable. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_De_Vany https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_De_Vany [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_E._Caves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_E._Caves