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I think you might be misunderstanding his post. It's a pretty short post. He said that he is willing to work for a "slightly less" pay (slightly less likely mea

by bugsy 16y ago

I think you might be misunderstanding his post. It's a pretty short post. He said that he is willing to work for a "slightly less" pay (slightly less likely means 1-5% less) doing something he enjoys than something he doesn't enjoy. That sure sounds like a reasonable statement. In your response, you stated that "you don't ask for money for what you do" and then proceeded to knock down that strawman. Working without any pay at all is not the same as doing something you enjoy for "slightly less" than you would accept to do something you don't enjoy.

anigbrowl 16y ago
I think you're interpreting mine over-literally. I went on in the second sentence to make it clear that I was drawing a contrast with pay for 'the most basic labor,' so as to avoid confusion. Once again "what you do" is what distinguishes you from any other warm body in the workplace. The poster is not talking about opting to earn slightly less than he might in a variety of other popular careers, he's talking about opting to earn slightly less than he could get in an entry-level unskilled job. In economic terms, his choice to sell his services below the labor market's lowest rate for doing anything at all has a significant opportunity cost, to say nothing of the fact that he still has overhead and so on. A person who gets paid nothing at all is losing money because s/he still has to eat, buy clothes and so on. A person paid the market minimum is making a very small amount of money after life's necessities have been paid for, which is why we don't think of burger-flipping as a profitable career choice. Anyone charging less than this is working for zero profit, unless they are lucky enough to have free rent, food and so on. What do you call a business plan which does not acknowledge any need to make a profit? Would you invest in such a business?

by bugsy 16y ago

anigbrowl 16y ago

I think you're interpreting mine over-literally. I went on in the second sentence to make it clear that I was drawing a contrast with pay for 'the most basic labor,' so as to avoid confusion. Once again "what you do" is what distinguishes you from any other warm body in the workplace. The poster is not talking about opting to earn slightly less than he might in a variety of other popular careers, he's talking about opting to earn slightly less than he could get in an entry-level unskilled job. In economic terms, his choice to sell his services below the labor market's lowest rate for doing anything at all has a significant opportunity cost, to say nothing of the fact that he still has overhead and so on. A person who gets paid nothing at all is losing money because s/he still has to eat, buy clothes and so on. A person paid the market minimum is making a very small amount of money after life's necessities have been paid for, which is why we don't think of burger-flipping as a profitable career choice. Anyone charging less than this is working for zero profit, unless they are lucky enough to have free rent, food and so on. What do you call a business plan which does not acknowledge any need to make a profit? Would you invest in such a business?