"That excerpt is about 40 words. A Jacobin Magazine writer who turns out just six of those per hour would match a Walmart employee's pay? That doesn't sound too bad! I expect I could make a decent living if someone wanted to pay me by the word."
Except that one is not going to be paid for issuing an endless stream of words. First, you have to do the research necessary to develop the story (for which you do not get paid). Next, you write the story (for which you do get paid based on the number of words). Then, you have to get it through editing for ultimate publication (for which you do not get paid). By the time you get your little money-maker published, you are way behind the Walmart worker.
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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