[Timon3]

Capitalism is definitely not the driving force behind most of the great art I enjoy in my modern life. Capitalism destroys art, and it's hard to imagine just how much great art we've missed out on because the artists had to stay busy with work so they can live.

[briandear]

If people aren’t willing to pay for it, is it “great?”

[Timon3]

If an artist has limited time (as all humans do), they can either work a regular job and have a guaranteed income, or they can create art and possibly starve, even if their art is great. You understand that, right?

You can't go up to people and say "hey, I have this incredible idea for an art project, please give me enough money for 5 years go work on this". A few artists can, but most a) won't convince other people that their specific idea is as good as it might be, and b) can't create enough publicity to actually get enough people's eyes on their ideas.

Your "it's not great if people don't want to pay for it" might work in a system where every human can talk to every artist and compare everything. But that is not our world. There will always be people who are undiscovered, there will always be people who could create great things, but don't have enough money.

But I don't think a capitalist can actually understand this.