Day: April 16, 2013

What’s In a Tomato

What’s In a Tomato:

I purchased this tomato at a farmers’ market in San Francisco. It cost me 60 cents, which is about half the price of a supermarket tomato, and contains 25 calories. That’s 2.4 cents / calorie. By comparison, a double cheeseburger from McDonald’s costs 99 cents and contains 440 calories6, which is 0.225 cents / calorie, more than an order of magnitude more cost effective. It would cost me $130/day to live on supermarket tomatoes, $65/day to live on farmers’ market tomatoes, and $6/day to live on cheeseburgers. It’s no wonder the poor eat poorly.

[Nope. No wonder at all. However if we turned all those of acres grass we grow or open lots where they exist into produce gardens…]

Source: Mostly Harmless

So, I guess we should all be freelancing for free?

So, I guess we should all be freelancing for free?:

I just don’t understand anything anymore.

Wealthy musician Amanda Palmer, who last year raised $1.2 million on Kickstarter to produce and release a record, recently used a TED talk to expand on the idea that artists should be willing to work for free. After relaying a story about how she used to be a street performer, Palmer, who is married to a very successful author named Neil Gaiman, told an audience of people who’d paid $7,500 apiece to be there that musicians shouldn’t “make” people pay for their work, but rather “let” people pay for their work. She also explained that she found it virtuous when a family of undocumented immigrants huddled together on their couch for a night so that she and her band could have their beds, because her music and presence was a fair exchange for the family’s comfort. After about 13 minutes of explaining why she is content with people giving her things, Palmer received a standing ovation.

[I know that visual artists are very vocal about this issue. My experience is that they have more concerns about this than others seem to. Maybe they get more requests for free work? I’m not sure. But I disagree with the analysis above. I don’t think Ms. Palmer was asking anyone to work for free. She was suggesting as many do, that you need to flip the model, and use that in your attempt to cut through the clutter and noise. Offer people the opportunity to purchase your art… a model that works for some people and not others, and some cases and not others. In short there’s a difference between “talent for hire” and “art”. And a lot of folks think of their work for hire as art. It’s not for me to say, but I think the distinction I’m trying to draw is important when it comes to “free”.]

Source: Luc Latulippe