That you’ve read something that isn’t actually there into the comments on the Guardian article and that you’ve failed to adequately explain why libraries aren’t the perfect mix of books and community / social outcomes that you seem to want.

No, this isn’t even about subsidizing art (I have no problem with that—in fact, as an artist, I wouldn’t mind seeing a bit of that money come my way). What I’m not for, because its totally unnecessary, is subsidizing a DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM that’s losing market share to an alternate distribution system.

I can think of lots of better things to do with those tax dollars-including subsidizing the arts.

E-books will only strengthen the position of writers. Its the middle men in publishing who are at risk. In fact the outcome of e-books is most likely to be a more even publishing sector, where more writers make a living but fewer make a fortune.

Sorry that you have such pessimism towards your career as a writer Evil Rocks. I think you’ll probably discover that writing is every bit as much a full time job as any other career you might pick, and really no more or less secure than any other creative, competitive industry. And there are a lot more people making a living at it than you think! Neal Stephenson certainly does…he works on space research because he wants to, not because he is desperate for the money.

I don’t know man, get a real job and write in your spare time until you get famous enough that people are willing to buy your work? Nine Inch Nails makes it work. I plan to write for my entire life but I’m not silly enough to think that I can make a living at it – ever. Maybe at some point someone will track me down and ask me for a few thousand words on a topic of my expertise, but I’m not about to count on that American fame-game crapshoot to put rice and beans on my table.

I point to dudes like Charlie Stross, who built a career while writing on the side and still make plenty of money running around to various conferences, writing presciently about the near-future. The pie is slimming, man, and the answer is not government handouts to every industry threatened by technological change. The answer is to be a smarter capitalist, not to ask the government to make the game easier.

Somehow, people like Thomas Pynchon still manage to sell their tomes. Neal Stephenson has gainful employment at a research and development company. Maybe it’s not that it will become impossible to make a living as a writer, but that the market for pap and genre fiction is about to collapse, leaving only a market for dedicated fiction readers. You’ll note that Billy Collins makes a living writing poetry. Maybe not another soul in the states does so, but is that not simply the shrinking pie at work?

Griping and moaning about the world changing quicker than your business models can adapt is all well and good if your industry has a lock on employment and the governments ear (car companies in the United States, f.ex.). Artists, writers and musicians have neither a lock on employment nor a governmental ear to whisper sweet crony-capitalism message into.

Besides, we’re talking about art for consumption. It wasn’t too long ago historically that art was made by people as a way of entertaining themselves. I’m much more in favor of a return to “art as self-entertainment” than continuing to prop up the “art for consumption” industry. I enjoy writing, I do it because it pleases me, and I don’t really ever expect to make any money at it. I watched my mother struggle at that for 10 years while growing up – no thank you, sir. I prefer a profitable career to support my habits and hobbies.