what you can do

The time has come to insist on an obvious but overlooked fact—artists are workers. They make things and perform services, just like other workers, and these goods and services have value—not merely in lofty spiritual terms but also in dollars and cents. Dana Gioia, Chairman National Endowment for the Arts. in Artists in the Workforce, 1990-2005

If you are an artist, it's almost a certainty that you will fall into the blue region represented above—that is, in the lower 90 percentile of wage earners in the US. Everyone deserves, and should demand, a living wage. Not just for artists but for everyone.

it's not what you think it is

Americans think they understand how wealth in this country is distributed but they DO NOT. Our perception is that in general, there is a much more equitable distribution of wealth across the nation than actually exists. In fact, the top 20% of Americans control almost most, (more than 80%), of the wealth in this country.

income inequality matters

The gap between the rich and the poor is vast. It wasn't always so. From 1917-1970, the wealthiest Americans controlled about 70 percent of the US economy. Currently, the rich control, for all practical purposes, almost the entire amount of US wealth.