Chapter 6 - Conclusions

Summary

How good a living is possible by devotee work? The foregoing chapters suggest a most complex answer to this question. It roots in the observation that money has been a problem for over two centuries. Thus, Sophocles, ancient Greek priest, general and tragic poet, lamented in his drama Antigone that “there's nothing in the world so demoralizing as money.” Accordingly, the main part of this chapter examines the bread-and-butter issue of getting paid to do devotee work. A passage from Stebbins (2004/2014, 91– 100), paraphrased in the next section, sheds further light on the matter.

Are They Paid so They May Work?

Most people, lured by the opposite logic of this proposition, work so they may be paid. When work is uninteresting, but still decently remunerative, workers can at least sustain life and, with whatever money that is leftover, enjoy a bit of the smorgasbord of consumer opportunities that the commercial world lays out before them. A lifetime of uninteresting work is a high price to pay for economic survival and some spending cash, but many a modern worker finds just this bargain with that person's educational qualifications and personal standards for occupational success.

When work is highly attractive, however, this conventional orientation toward it and its remuneration often gets stood on its head. Still, the relationship of remuneration to devotee work is complicated, as is evident in the different economic situations that devotees live in or strive to live in.

Economic situation

“Economic situation” is my term for the level of living made possible by a person's disposable wealth, that being in most instances his occupational income, though in some instances, it includes returns on investments. Applied to occupational devotion, economic situation can be conceptualized as arrayed along a scale of increasing wealth that runs from poverty to opulence. The low end of the scale is anchored in poverty and near poverty, where the devotee is desperately trying to make a living, but so far with little monetary success. Here is the home of the legendary starving artist and the minimally successful small business proprietor. Here, money earned at devotee work is problematic only, though still very profoundly, in that there is little or none of it.