I love the idea of a creative credit. It’s brilliant way to get more minds sharing their slice of strangeness. Which we need more of- let’s start a book tok campaign! (Not)
Please, feel free to cut and paste from this post. I'm fishing for a glossy magazine in which to expand the idea with input from the lawyers and bean counters. It's unimportant where this idea came from, just so long as it has legs and travels.
This is brilliant. Hands down I’m not taking kindly to being laughed at by one more person, especially a politician and their cronies. I would venture to say that my time working and away from my special needs child is worth more than minimum wage to create an escape for someone. To entertain them and make them forget their life and problems is more valuable than people are willing to admit and it’s time that ends.
Exactly. We forego very important things. All other investments are rewarded, whether they succeed or not. You either deduct the loss or pay tax on the profit. This idea is no longer "unworkable."
It’s important to remember too, like you said, that we are the ones who make it workable by making it work! This includes voting for people who see that we have this power! People forget that and I’m so glad you pointed it out!
We can talk about my Discuss escapades in High School and University another time.
As far as the taxes go I'm not much of an accountant so I couldn't say whether I think it's a Good or Great idea. I'm sure it would help me but I know so little about how to do taxes I can't imagine how it would be implemented.
I did always think it would be good for self employed people to have a service - a payment processor, bank, etc. - that would automatically take out taxes from all payments made to a self employed person so that they wouldn't have to figure it out later and try to catch up. Playing catch up is the worst. Ask me how I know! Not being an accountant though I wouldn't attempt to create a business like that for self employed people because I would need an accountant to help me understand and wrap my mind around the best way to implement it.
Taxes suck. I think we should do a flat tax for everyone and a national sales tax. That would make everyone feel like taxes were fair for the poor and the rich. If you "spend" more money you spend more of it on taxes. But if you don't spend more money, everyone pays the same percentage on their income. You could adjust the Sales tax on different items to equal what you would have recieved under the old system and then just tweak the Sales Tax. You keep a flat income tax to balance out recession periods where people stop spending money. Hell, Texas doesn't even have an income tax. They make all their money from sales tax.
Who was the politician? Inquiring minds need to know.
I threw discuss in High School and actually placed first at State for my 2A high school division (My senior graduation class was about 60 give or take). I held the state record for a few years until someone on steroids broke my record a few years later. I was told he took steroids and that everyone knew. I never took anything including supplements in High School though. I did place 2nd Amongst all High Schools from 1A to 5A. I got a small scholarship to throw discuss for my community college my first year until I transferred to another community college across town without a track team and I gave up on it. I had dreams of throwing in the Olympics for a while but living in my own apartment far away from my parents and chasing after girls got in the way. I'd probably go back and change that if i had a second chance.
As I recall... discus throwers were divided into two camps. Stickiness was paramount, making the discus sticky enough that it could launch off the last tip of the last finger. Competitors debated whether to spit on their hands, or to spit on the disc itself. You?
I went to a Christian high school, so there was no spitting involved. 😉
The rules were pretty strict though, especially for state matches. Any disc involved in a match had to be available to anyone else on any team. That would have made for an unsettling feeling if everyone was spitting on the same disc.
In fact, during the state competition, my teammate (also my high school bully from freshman year) took our expensive, perfectly weighted disc and hid it so that no one on the other teams could use it. During practice, someone had used our disc and had thrown it right into one of the poles, and he was afraid someone would break it. The judges found out and disqualified the disc. I had to look through the available discs to find one that would work since I had been practicing with that one all season. I found one that was a little rusted but had the same weight distribution.
I took my first throw and I remember how it just kept going up and up compared to the last guy. I don't remember the distance, but it was considerably further than anyone else at our state meet. I'll have to look it up. I still hold the school record at my high school.
Immediately all of the other throwers started using the new disc, and one of them threw it into a pole again. It didn't matter at that point though. I had already won and I was just competing against myself to see if I could throw it even further.
For me, it was more about the shoes. Throwing shoes were important. They had just the right amount of traction and support to allow you to spin around on the pad without slipping outside the circle. It was all about the shoes. The throwing shoes made all the difference.
Hah! Yes, in competition everyone had to add their discus to the pool. Anyone could choose anyone's discus, so that's why much, much spitting occurred then and there. All the dogs had to pee on their trees to ward off other dogs. It strikes me now that my discus throwing resonates with David Foster Wallace playing tennis.
This reminds me of that story you told about Mark Richard. How he went to write for some popular TV show so he could make enough money to write the stuff he actually wanted to write.
That, and he had small children and needed health care coverage. The show he moved to was "Party of Five" where he eventually wrote himself into the script and got the part of playing himself, thus got into SAG and got more health care benefits.
I think it’s an excellent proposal. However, I feel all eyes and ears seemed tuned into AI at the moment. Which is probably the opposite of a creative credit. Open AI (Chat GPT) is a non-profit and uses that status to get away with avoiding most if not all taxes. At least they started out that way. The creative credit is going to billion dollar corporations with skin in the AI game, like Nvidia, and others looking to get in the AI game like Elon Musk.
Oh , 100%! More than anything I was just voicing my annoyance with how easily, and without question the financially privileged can be absolved of all responsibility in creative ventures. But the actual starving artists, the ones who are responsible for building, reforming, and/or maintaining cultures, they are passed over for billionaires and the latest craze. I’m no it a starving artist, but I feel frustrated for those that are in this new age of creativity.
Best thing about our constant striving for some semblance of homeostasis, if you will, is that when the pendulum swings too far in one direction, it eventually has to swing back the other way to get closer to center. Given that we’re so AI focused right now, it’s probably ideal to start thinking this way. In fact, it might be exactly why you’re thinking this way. Counter culture. What we need to swing back. Recenter. Get closer to that elusive middle ground.
Hell yeah! Your proposal wails! We already do so much free work as artists. Whether you’re making a living off it or trying to get something going. Our time is deeply undervalued. And then to have some assbags undermine your ideas when they freakin asked you for them. Ugh. Consider me pissed off.
Man Chuck I get fucked on taxes so much almost every year that it isn't a joke. I would love to be able to deduct all the time I spend honing my craft. Uncle Sam doesn't care how many hours I spend making myself better or revising my latest essay or short story. If anything at least I enjoyed all the effort. All the drives to Portland. All the hours of sleep I missed. Thanks for trying.
Again, we'll get what we demand. Yes, nothing will replace the joy and the community you find in your endeavor, but wouldn't it be nice to have a yearly deduction against your overall income. Or, a fat accumulated deduction against your first book contract? It would even out the tax roller coaster of feast-or-famine with selling your work.
I plan on going the Philip K Dick route to success. Do lots of speed and uppers. Write 10 books a year. Write my dead twin sister as the main female character in all my works. Channel my schizophrenia into good writing by believing the amazing scifi I'm writing is non-fiction. I'll leave out the 5 ex-wives part because I know from experience that those are not the best tax deductions.
How many of the greatest artists and innovators lived and died in fields and factories simply because they got a shit roll of the dice?
Being that gargantuan industries are dependent on artists, one would think that we should clear a path for creatives worth their salt.
However, with the democratization of everything by the internet, that path is a lot clearer. The only gatekeeper to selling your work on the internet is you.
And I wish that writing were a difficult physical task, like discus, rather than screen staring. I'd be able to do it for much longer. I swear Im going to build that massive wall mounted keyboard that requires boxing gloves that Kurt Vonnegut talked about in Pity the Reader. Its gotta be outdoors though.
Amen. So many good points but my favorite is the expectation to work for free from people who already have the money. People already in the catbird seat have a funny way of dictating what the sparrows should be doing.
Unfortunately I live in a state that has become the model for runaway gerrymandering, so despite living in an “artistic” community, my district is represented by a hardliner who owns a string of fast food franchises and wants everything to ‘go back to the way it was.’ But I’ve been itching to call this person out on camera, and I’ll do my best to use your proposal to galvanize the many hardworking creatives I know to back me up on this. I think it’s a great idea. You think you’d ever consider running for office?
There are people who hate Ethan Hawke?! That makes my Gen X hackles rise. 😆
I completely agree -- both with the Hawke video and that Chuck's idea is absolutely brilliant.
I hope you can get back to writing soon. I can't wait to see what you do once you get that character on paper!
I love the idea of a creative credit. It’s brilliant way to get more minds sharing their slice of strangeness. Which we need more of- let’s start a book tok campaign! (Not)
Please, feel free to cut and paste from this post. I'm fishing for a glossy magazine in which to expand the idea with input from the lawyers and bean counters. It's unimportant where this idea came from, just so long as it has legs and travels.
Brilliant proposal! I love it! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Brings a whole new meaning to the colloquialism, “if I had a nickel for every time I…”
Those nickels add up.
This is brilliant. Hands down I’m not taking kindly to being laughed at by one more person, especially a politician and their cronies. I would venture to say that my time working and away from my special needs child is worth more than minimum wage to create an escape for someone. To entertain them and make them forget their life and problems is more valuable than people are willing to admit and it’s time that ends.
Exactly. We forego very important things. All other investments are rewarded, whether they succeed or not. You either deduct the loss or pay tax on the profit. This idea is no longer "unworkable."
It’s important to remember too, like you said, that we are the ones who make it workable by making it work! This includes voting for people who see that we have this power! People forget that and I’m so glad you pointed it out!
You didn't actually throw the discuss did you?
We can talk about my Discuss escapades in High School and University another time.
As far as the taxes go I'm not much of an accountant so I couldn't say whether I think it's a Good or Great idea. I'm sure it would help me but I know so little about how to do taxes I can't imagine how it would be implemented.
I did always think it would be good for self employed people to have a service - a payment processor, bank, etc. - that would automatically take out taxes from all payments made to a self employed person so that they wouldn't have to figure it out later and try to catch up. Playing catch up is the worst. Ask me how I know! Not being an accountant though I wouldn't attempt to create a business like that for self employed people because I would need an accountant to help me understand and wrap my mind around the best way to implement it.
Taxes suck. I think we should do a flat tax for everyone and a national sales tax. That would make everyone feel like taxes were fair for the poor and the rich. If you "spend" more money you spend more of it on taxes. But if you don't spend more money, everyone pays the same percentage on their income. You could adjust the Sales tax on different items to equal what you would have recieved under the old system and then just tweak the Sales Tax. You keep a flat income tax to balance out recession periods where people stop spending money. Hell, Texas doesn't even have an income tax. They make all their money from sales tax.
Who was the politician? Inquiring minds need to know.
I don't want to call out the politician. What's important is the dynamics of the scene.
And I did throw the discus for many years. It's just as weird and violent as it looks.
Also, the business end becomes a very small task when it becomes a regular habit.
I threw discuss in High School and actually placed first at State for my 2A high school division (My senior graduation class was about 60 give or take). I held the state record for a few years until someone on steroids broke my record a few years later. I was told he took steroids and that everyone knew. I never took anything including supplements in High School though. I did place 2nd Amongst all High Schools from 1A to 5A. I got a small scholarship to throw discuss for my community college my first year until I transferred to another community college across town without a track team and I gave up on it. I had dreams of throwing in the Olympics for a while but living in my own apartment far away from my parents and chasing after girls got in the way. I'd probably go back and change that if i had a second chance.
As I recall... discus throwers were divided into two camps. Stickiness was paramount, making the discus sticky enough that it could launch off the last tip of the last finger. Competitors debated whether to spit on their hands, or to spit on the disc itself. You?
I went to a Christian high school, so there was no spitting involved. 😉
The rules were pretty strict though, especially for state matches. Any disc involved in a match had to be available to anyone else on any team. That would have made for an unsettling feeling if everyone was spitting on the same disc.
In fact, during the state competition, my teammate (also my high school bully from freshman year) took our expensive, perfectly weighted disc and hid it so that no one on the other teams could use it. During practice, someone had used our disc and had thrown it right into one of the poles, and he was afraid someone would break it. The judges found out and disqualified the disc. I had to look through the available discs to find one that would work since I had been practicing with that one all season. I found one that was a little rusted but had the same weight distribution.
I took my first throw and I remember how it just kept going up and up compared to the last guy. I don't remember the distance, but it was considerably further than anyone else at our state meet. I'll have to look it up. I still hold the school record at my high school.
Immediately all of the other throwers started using the new disc, and one of them threw it into a pole again. It didn't matter at that point though. I had already won and I was just competing against myself to see if I could throw it even further.
For me, it was more about the shoes. Throwing shoes were important. They had just the right amount of traction and support to allow you to spin around on the pad without slipping outside the circle. It was all about the shoes. The throwing shoes made all the difference.
Hah! Yes, in competition everyone had to add their discus to the pool. Anyone could choose anyone's discus, so that's why much, much spitting occurred then and there. All the dogs had to pee on their trees to ward off other dogs. It strikes me now that my discus throwing resonates with David Foster Wallace playing tennis.
Thanks for sharing, Chuck.
This reminds me of that story you told about Mark Richard. How he went to write for some popular TV show so he could make enough money to write the stuff he actually wanted to write.
That, and he had small children and needed health care coverage. The show he moved to was "Party of Five" where he eventually wrote himself into the script and got the part of playing himself, thus got into SAG and got more health care benefits.
I just loved this essay. I always go cross-eyed and sleepy when I hear words like "taxes" and "politicians" and "money." I really need to fix that.
I think it’s an excellent proposal. However, I feel all eyes and ears seemed tuned into AI at the moment. Which is probably the opposite of a creative credit. Open AI (Chat GPT) is a non-profit and uses that status to get away with avoiding most if not all taxes. At least they started out that way. The creative credit is going to billion dollar corporations with skin in the AI game, like Nvidia, and others looking to get in the AI game like Elon Musk.
If people want anything different it's up to them to ask for it.
Oh , 100%! More than anything I was just voicing my annoyance with how easily, and without question the financially privileged can be absolved of all responsibility in creative ventures. But the actual starving artists, the ones who are responsible for building, reforming, and/or maintaining cultures, they are passed over for billionaires and the latest craze. I’m no it a starving artist, but I feel frustrated for those that are in this new age of creativity.
Best thing about our constant striving for some semblance of homeostasis, if you will, is that when the pendulum swings too far in one direction, it eventually has to swing back the other way to get closer to center. Given that we’re so AI focused right now, it’s probably ideal to start thinking this way. In fact, it might be exactly why you’re thinking this way. Counter culture. What we need to swing back. Recenter. Get closer to that elusive middle ground.
Hell yeah! Your proposal wails! We already do so much free work as artists. Whether you’re making a living off it or trying to get something going. Our time is deeply undervalued. And then to have some assbags undermine your ideas when they freakin asked you for them. Ugh. Consider me pissed off.
Share this. Impossible ideas can be sticky -- Fight Club? -- and infiltrate everything, everywhere.
Man Chuck I get fucked on taxes so much almost every year that it isn't a joke. I would love to be able to deduct all the time I spend honing my craft. Uncle Sam doesn't care how many hours I spend making myself better or revising my latest essay or short story. If anything at least I enjoyed all the effort. All the drives to Portland. All the hours of sleep I missed. Thanks for trying.
Again, we'll get what we demand. Yes, nothing will replace the joy and the community you find in your endeavor, but wouldn't it be nice to have a yearly deduction against your overall income. Or, a fat accumulated deduction against your first book contract? It would even out the tax roller coaster of feast-or-famine with selling your work.
I plan on going the Philip K Dick route to success. Do lots of speed and uppers. Write 10 books a year. Write my dead twin sister as the main female character in all my works. Channel my schizophrenia into good writing by believing the amazing scifi I'm writing is non-fiction. I'll leave out the 5 ex-wives part because I know from experience that those are not the best tax deductions.
Thanks Chuck.
Frankly, I’m against taxes.
Yeah, and I'm against death.
How very death-phobic of you
Two NDEs. I'm A-OK for #3…(shrugs)
Move to the states and getchee some freedom.
How many of the greatest artists and innovators lived and died in fields and factories simply because they got a shit roll of the dice?
Being that gargantuan industries are dependent on artists, one would think that we should clear a path for creatives worth their salt.
However, with the democratization of everything by the internet, that path is a lot clearer. The only gatekeeper to selling your work on the internet is you.
And I wish that writing were a difficult physical task, like discus, rather than screen staring. I'd be able to do it for much longer. I swear Im going to build that massive wall mounted keyboard that requires boxing gloves that Kurt Vonnegut talked about in Pity the Reader. Its gotta be outdoors though.
Amen. So many good points but my favorite is the expectation to work for free from people who already have the money. People already in the catbird seat have a funny way of dictating what the sparrows should be doing.
You just fill out this grant proposal, tell us everything you have in mind, and we'll give the money to my niece.
Sex is so hard — no pun — to say not to. Yesterday was my first successful day of going home to write instead of cruising for cheerios at a fruitloop.
You can give up anything for the right idea.
Unfortunately I live in a state that has become the model for runaway gerrymandering, so despite living in an “artistic” community, my district is represented by a hardliner who owns a string of fast food franchises and wants everything to ‘go back to the way it was.’ But I’ve been itching to call this person out on camera, and I’ll do my best to use your proposal to galvanize the many hardworking creatives I know to back me up on this. I think it’s a great idea. You think you’d ever consider running for office?
Today's fringe idea is tomorrow's plank on the political party platform.
This might take a while. Baby steps.
Oh, I come from a long and prestigious lineage of stubborn bastards. Eating the elephant is my strong suit.