Almost every time I open Medium, I find myself bombarded with articles about how to get rich, how to write for publications that will make me rich (almost always if not instantaneously, then within a few weeks, or months at most), how to become more proficient as a writer, or how to increase my sphere of influence, through gaining followers, getting more reads, and — the bottom line — monetising what I do.
Here’s the rub. I want to survive and thrive as much as the next fellow. Do I want untold riches? No. I want enough. What’s enough? Some writers at the Azimuth Project (look it up) have tackled that. Around 45,000 euro (and roughly the same in dollars) per annum would be a healthy income, allowing everything we need, even in the global north. The sum in the global south would be even less. But what would allow us to make this switch in ambition? How could we aim low, instead of high, and where does this leave us when the richest one percent took two thirds of the profit to swell their coffers over the last two years? Where their impact on the ecological emergency dwarfs that of us little people?
Here’s what I’ve been reading recently that makes me wonder about how much surviving and thriving as the theme creates the very problems it attempts to solve:
- Rohinton Mistry’s book, A Fine Balance, tells the story of a group of people whose lives intersect during the seventies and…
