Where is Your New Vision?

By Daniel Nie

(Daniel will be speaking at the CHS Read across America event on Wednesday, Feb. 25th from 9:10-9:45.  He will also be selling and signing his books and creating Coolligraphy for those interested.)

Where is Your New Vision?

By Daniel Nie

I am an artist. I sell my artwork for living. I need middle class people to buy my art.  Then, if thousands of the middle class make a good income, they may have money left over, after paying for living expenses, to buy my art.

When the middle class have money, an artist can make a good living if he is willing to work hard, because the number ratio of artists vs. the general population is good. That means, even if the artist can paint only fishes,  even if there is only a small percentage in the population in the U.S. who would purchase his fish paintings, he would have enough business. He could make $1000 if he sells 20 pieces at $50 each. He would be able to make $100K, if he produces and sells 2000 pieces (It is possible for an artist to produce that many, or even more pieces of quality paintings per year; I have!)

When the middle class has money, the artist can be confident that he can make more money if he works harder. Many common artists (average artists, not necessary famous ones) have done that in the 80's or earlier. I was one of them!

Now it is a different situation. The middle class no longer has much disposable income. To buy original paintings is now a luxury for the middle class and consequentially this has changed our culture. Many people do not care about the difference between a print mass produced in China and hand painted artwork by a local artist.

What should I do to make a good living as an artist who may not have any other skills or talents? Find a real job? The real jobs I could find may not pay much at all. So, even if I work 2 minimum wage jobs, I still cannot make enough to be considered middle class.  If I sell my art only to the rich people, although I may sell at $5000 per piece (sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?), there is not enough rich people out there who just happen to love my fish paintings. It would be considered very lucky for me to sell 4 pieces per year at $5000 each, but I would still be considered low income, making only $20K per year. With this low income, I will never be able to afford to live in an upper middle class neighborhood. Am I right? So how can I be a member of the upper middle class if I am willing to work my fingers off as a common artist?

Fortunately, I am not that poor artist, described above, whom I pretended to be. My point here is that the New America is not the same one I found in 1981. I do not know if I could make it if the economy and culture, at the time I started my art career, were what it is today.

In the past, as long as I was willing to paint, and willing to work 20 hours a day to produce as many paintings as I could, I did not need to worry that my paintings wouldn't sell. The buying population and the culture were there. Unfortunately, that is not true anymore.

Before, anyone, as long as he was willing to work 2 shifts, could work in the factory ----his time was money. But not anymore, it is no longer easy to find a place to work overtime even if you do not mind to sweat.

In generations past, one did not have to graduate from college or even from high school; he could get a good job on an assembly line that paid well. Now, you have to be outstanding, gifted, or someone who has connections and resources in order to get ahead.

In this new globalized world where jobs are off shoring and men are being replaced by robots, how can we recreate a middle class with a lot of disposable money? Is it possible? My answer is Yes! It is absolutely possible. We can make the changes necessary for the middle class to have disposable income once again.  Here is my vision and plan:

People no longer look for conventional employment.  They create work that is in demand by customers who prefer human-to-human services. However, this culture of human services has to be to be developed first. That means we need to establish some qualified people to promote such a culture.

80% of the population need to have money, enough money, that will make a life style change. Once they make a high income; they do not need much savings; they love to spend; they desire a better life style than the one they are accustomed. In order to reach this as a cultural reality, we first need to ask a key question: How can we make it possible for people to be able to make more money when they work harder even though this world has fewer and fewer conventional job openings? We need to research and find the kind of new political and economic system that can make this vision a reality. Who will be the legal entity or architect to carry this out?

The government will not do this job for people. The rich and powerful will not initiate this goal for the people. The people themselves have to wake up. They should not be distracted by the Left or the Right but focus on the real issues with a scientific approach to the social and economic problems that linger with them since off shoring and robots. People need an awareness to focus on the real issues!  Do our leaders have the will to call on researchers that could bring about real change that would update our American culture and society in a fundamental way? Are we confident enough to commit ourselves to renew our minds and spirits, so our ideology can be compatible to this globalized world?

How can our social and political system catch up with the leaping forward technology? If we do not ask these questions, we are kicking the can down the road; we are insane, as Albert Einstein said, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

2015