Can Crypto UBI be a Positive Force for Bigger, Better Culture?
How many artists do you know who can work full-time as self-funded, or art-funded, creative workers?
For those who think art is worthless, imagine your days without art. No music, theatre, cartoons, videos, novels ... what a bleak existence that would be.
Who do you know works as a creative, not for an employer, production-line style, but their own self-motivated creativity funds their lifestyle?
The only people I know who are living such a life are YouTubers with Patreons. It's such a shame because so much creativity is pushed to "odd moments of hobby time" instead of enriching us all, due to the overwhelming priority to just stay alive and/or feed their kids.
I myself went into IT because I knew even if I went the art college route that I would never be able to live a comfortable life on the earnings I would make, and my brother has two jobs so only manages to fit his music into his schedule with extreme discipline. The most recent wall art I purchased was from a super-talented lady who has a day job in a law office.
Creating Art Full Time is a Literal Privilege
It has long been established that in the UK if you want to participate fully in being an artist, then you need to be from, or benefit from, an upper-class background in all but a tiny number of edge cases.
Don't believe me? Google the word "patron".
There is a reason historical artists are portrayed as aristocrats or starving in rat-infested lofts.
This recently was brought back into public conversation with an article about UK nepo-babies.
It shows how class privilege in Britain works: not only by opening doors for some, but also shutting others out. A paper published in the Sociology journal in November 2022 found that just 8 percent of actors, musicians and writers were from working-class backgrounds: half the number of the 70s, despite decades of initiatives to make the arts more open and diverse.
Those in positions of influence within the arts, however, tended to be from privileged backgrounds and to favour those who were the same.
Just to make connections necessary to gain opportunities, a vast number of artists had to attend super expensive private schools that would price out all but a tiny number of otherwise credible, talented and passionate people.
This means that culture as a whole is not getting the best and brightest contributions, just those who know they won't starve while pursuing their dreams.
Now, those who benefit from this situation would argue that keeping full arts participation to the select few aristocratically selected individuals it inherently makes it a meritocracy, following USA-style profit-worship:
- They are wealthy
- Because they are blessed by God
- God wouldn't bless the unworthy
- Therefore they must be worthy
- Therefore they are better people than people not blessed with wealth
Which, if you have never read a bible, would make some kind of logic.
Unfortunately for them, we do know that people from working-class and poor backgrounds have as much or more raw talent and potential, they just very rarely get given a chance to prove it.
What about UBI?
I do like the idea of a government-run Universal Basic Income, not just for the arts but society as a whole. Imagine how much more charity, public works, and society-benefitting projects would happen if people could participate and still put food on the table?
Research has shown time again that people don't want to be idle. Given access to mental healthcare, a warm dry home, and food, they turn their attention to being productive members of a community more times than not.
Unfortunately, we mostly live in societies that only value time spent on making a profit. Usually for someone else further up the pyramid. Tabloids, talking heads on TV, and awful politicians are unlikely to move forward with something that literally is intended to give people "something for nothing" unless the recipients are them (see: Covid loans and PPE £ scandals).
Enter Hive and Crypto
While most of crypto attracts people who are in it for the "Lambo" culture, there are also a bunch of people who look at crypto as a technology enabling more than individual wealth.
Here in Hive we have an ability to fund projects with our currency. Most of these projects tend to either be technology additions, apps and tools or games, and a percentage are silly vanity projects for those involved (like emblazoning a racing car with logos or a documentary that most people will never see).
How could we carve out a percentage of the fund for creative works? Is there a way, filtering for automated AI-produced work fund farming scams, that we could be a patron of the arts?
