Of all the literature produced by the current system in the last century, how much of it is actually valuable in the sense that having it is a great boon to soc

Of all the literature produced by the current system in the last century, how much of it is actually valuable in the sense that having it is a great boon to society? How much of that would not have been produced had the publishing industry not existed? I'd wager that authors would still produce literature regardless; you'd have to be insane to write a book with the sole intention to live off the proceeds. It hardly ever happens NOW. You could make more money cleaning pools. The loss of the entire publishing industry is not necessarily a great disaster. Like publishers, the music industry never produced culture; it marketed the latest fad to teens relentlessly. That's a live-by-the-sword, die-by-the-sword business model. When teens decide you're no longer cool or necessary, there's no alternative but bankruptcy. Now, if I could actually find physical copies of great new music that isn't compressed all to hell for not-outlandish prices, I'd buy it in quantity. But that's not what the music industry is selling. Same for publishers; these people aren't providing the same value they used to, which is to cull through the crap and only offer the good stuff to the customer. The Internet does that for me now. As for the financial incentive for the author to write, I really don't care. A patronage system could work. Public funding could work, and might even cost less than enforcing copyrights. But nobody owes anyone else a living, least of all the middleman between the author and the audience. If we're really worried about piracy and the book is that great, only sell paper copies. Self-publishing makes that possible too.