<i>In this small network designed to save struggling creatives, the money has still concentrated at the top.</i><p>Why on earth would anyone expect otherwise?<p>Let's take, for example, the explicit attempt to organize society so that its members are more equal. This ought to be easy to do because we have an entire century of communism and socialism to draw conclusions from.<p>In <i>every</i> instance where these ideas have been put into practice, the elite lives much better than the average subject. (This is not even a controversial point.)<p>Contrary to what most people think, the problem isn't that human nature is at fault. That humans are inherently bad, and are failing to live up to a noble ideal.<p>The real problem is the concept of <i>equality</i> itself, which includes two separate but opposite ideas.<p>The idea of legal equality - where every person ideally gets a fair shake through the courts - is excellent. A bedrock of a fair, just and prosperous civilization. Here, the ideal is a system that punishes only those that <i>choose</i> to violate specific, well-defined rights of other people, leaving everyone else free to go about their lives.<p>But this other idea of equality - where every person gets just as much money as everyone else does, no matter what <i>choices</i> they make, no matter what they prefer - is an absolute disaster. A century of history shows that this supposed ideal <i>itself</i> leads to mass suffering and death, precisely because people weren't free to think and act in ways needed to sustain their lives.<p>The underlying fact is that we are not all the same in every sense or capacity. Some of us are better at some things than others. Some of us decide to make better choices, or to delay instant gratification for long-term benefits. We ought to stop glossing over these differences and instead embrace them. (I say this not because my goal is to stomp on or take advantage of anyone - in fact, my goal is precisely the opposite.)<p>If no one wants to pay you for what you make, try to figure out why. Be prepared for an answer you do not want to hear. Stop thinking that your life is driven by fate or forces outside of your control (it only is if you <i>think</i> it is.) Be your own worst critic. And take even this paragraph with a grain of salt - success isn't ever guaranteed by blindly following a static recipe. Not everyone will choose to think this way, but maybe you will?