The connection is actually the inverse of "Baumol's Cost Disease". BCD describes the increase in labor costs when the laborers have other options. The problem

The connection is actually the inverse of "Baumol's Cost Disease". BCD describes the increase in labor costs when the laborers have other options. The problem for artists and writers is that they're concentrating on their artistic work, rather than building a resume and career, just because the artistic careers require so much energy, and most of what they end up doing is not transferrable to mainstream work. So they have fewer career options, and those who patronize them (e.g. publishers, agents) are able to exploit their weak bargaining position. For the same reason, academics in the humanities are often paid less than those in the sciences; science professors have other options. You can say that BCD is making the science professors rich, or making the humanities professors poor-- two sides of the same coin.