An important parallel to this, especially for those of us who grew up in the US, is to remember that your hobbies and the things you build can be for your own enrichment. They do not need to be efficient or profitable. The effect of the process on your psyche is far more important than the new inanimate object you possess at the end. But that's not how our capitalist worker bee culture taught me to see it.

This was discovered in the US shortly after the COVID-19 lockdown thanks to The Great Resignation when furloughed workers took to hobbies during lockdown and some of them found ones lucrative enough they decided to quit their (often toxic) jobs.

In fact, there's been a strong effort by both principal political parties and the ownership class to memory-hole what happened 2020-2022 in which ordinary people were given enough material support to define for themselves their societal role, rather than having it defined for them by major commercial interests (who want them as cheap labor).

This is also how an unconditional socialized or community-centered system would work. (We might even call them socialism or communism if those were not the worst of all slurs in the United States). People can couch-potato and binge-watch TV for about two weeks before cabin fever sets in and they either start fixing and building. Those of us (like me) who can couch potato for longer than that suffer from mental illness (and in my case, have been diagnosed since my early twenties). I stayed in bed for nine months, often without the capacity to literally lift a finger thanks to my avolition. No one wants to be that lazy.

No, the current system is a grift, a scam to force people to engage in menial labor for super-cheap while they suffer abuse by their superiors, hence the RTO mandates, and how crunching development teams in AAA game development is still a thing.

Yes, I'm bitter, but Trump's autocratic movement may be the last gasp of neoliberalism, and either we're going to see steps towards a new New Deal or we're going to see our Tech-Bro oligarch masters try to fascism all of the US and the reprisal will be even more revolutionary (and more violent).

I have long thought that a UBI would generate a new renaissance.

I don't know if it's art or just creation. Like, if I had infinite money I'd spend time on leatherworking and making little machines/programs. Both a form of creation.

The correct terminology is people want to be able to express themselves and explore the world without being judged. Finding a purpose in what they want to do in and with their life. After all, no one was chosen to be born.

Not me, I'm not good at art. I actually just really like building stuff. I guess I'm lucky that gets me paid well.

Pickup a fucking crayon and draw your friends

I'm an artist and rent is due. If I focus on one I end up homeless (again). If I focus on the other I'll want to kill myself because my life would have no more meaning.

Okay? What about all those billionaires destroying the world? Guess they must be the exceptions...

Just like most things. No not everyone is a creative or able to be happy doing creative things. And when you start talking about groups in the tens or hundreds of millions even small percentages become significant.

"Hey, Moe, can I pay my rent with a picture?"

"Yeah, no. Nice try there, 12-step."

"Oh... Ok..."

My inability to draw definitely isn't related to my mortgage.

the money also gets them famous

It seems to me like being able to choose to be an artist when rent is due IS what being Privileged means. Yeah, a lot more people probably would choose to express themselves over being a wage slave.

I'm not even sure what this post is trying to convey. Is there a definition of Privilege that doesn't include having opportunities that a lot of other people don't have?

Whoever said this obviously doesn't have a financial backer to develop acrylic paint in easy to eat tubes (specifically in yellow)