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by dijit 1042 days ago
I had a similar discussion on Tiktok of all places regarding the Rachel Zellger comments on her playing Snow White.

“I had to sit 17 hours in a Disney Princess dress! I want money for every hour it is watched” and I had a similar thought to you.

I feel like its a good idea but I’ve definitely missed something with capitalism: I thought the notion of being paid for your time leaves the fruits of that labour in the rightful hands of those who “invested” the capital up front to pay you.

If thats the case then getting residuals is directly against that notion at least, but hey, its what they negotiated so good on them.

However, where would that end hypothetically- what makes artistic works more inherently valuable in the long tail? I mean- aside from the fact that we all agree.

Why is design work, or even craftsmanship not rewarded the same? Its not like there is additional work to be done for artistic works.

It it because of likeness? I don’t fully understand.

1 comments

That's just it- at least with a likeness- your face, your voice... I can see a bit more of a justification. It's you, and it means 'you' are a continuous part of the product directly.

But an editor? A composer? A VFX artist? Why not the light guy or the craft services people?

How about this thought experiment:

My tile guy did a bang up job on my shower when I rebuilt this house. I mean... literally this rock wall in the bathroom is a work of art. It definitely increased the value of the home. I paid about $1600 to the guy for that work, it took him about 3 days. (I actually can't remember what it cost right now and I'm not up on masonry work prices so if that number seems way off don't read into it.)

Now, about 8 years later, and the market value of this house is about double what it was before I renovated. If I sold the house now... that nice shower is definitely adding to the fact the house is worth what it is, along with the overall market increase. If I made a 180% return on this home when I sell, should I fire off a $1280 check to my tile guy?

Sound ridiculous? Or no?

If, instead, the price of your houses halves over that time frame, do you invoice your tiler for his portion of your loss?
Do you take money from thespians if a movie tanks?
You could replace that rock wall with a turd wall and the house would be worth exactly the same and it's being valued that ONLY and ONLY because other houses in that location ask the same prices.

I lived to hear everything. "My property has doubled in value because of a turd wall".