imaqtpie

imaqtpie, 2 days ago

Eh it’s fine, everyone on the internet likes to take the opportunity to correct an argument that they think is wrong, even if just on a technicality. I don’t think the author of this piece needed to focus so much on the numerical comparison with billionaires either. If anything, they could have focused more on the historical compensation of writers to make a more compelling argument. Maybe try to find book sales and compensation from the past few centuries and see how they compare.

imaqtpie, 2 days ago

Why are people focusing on the numerical comparison between writers and billionaires? Whatever, it doesn’t really matter.

The point of the article is that writers and authors are seemingly less valued than they ever have been. One reason for this is probably the change in media consumption habits which renders writers mere employees and underlings in the film and television industries (along with everywhere else). People no longer read books, which are the main format by which writers can become self-employed and self sufficient.

As always, it comes back to the homogenizing aspect of capitalism which tends to absorb everything into an interconnected web of economic dependencies. Instead of small businesses, we have overarching retail behemoths like Walmart and Amazon. Similarly, instead of a multitude of independent writers and authors expressing their own thoughts in books, they are compelled to work in teams to construct artificial, corporatized narratives due to economic necessity, yielding film franchises and television series along with all of their advertising and merchandising income.

imaqtpie, 1 day ago

Unfortunately not. And even the few people who do still read books are much less likely to purchase a physical copy.

imaqtpie, 2 days ago (edited 2 days ago)

What you’re saying isn’t totally crazy, but I still have to disagree. Ronaldo scored 66 goals in 2013; he was a far better player than Ribery that season and every season tbh. Zidane was also a far better player than Ribery.

Ribery was a brilliant winger who could get by his man and create chances. But it was only as effective as it was because Bayern was so dominant. Consider this, in his 12 seasons at Bayern, they only had a goal differential below +41 once, which was in 08/09 when they finished second with a +29 GD. They never averaged below 2 goals/game, reaching all the way up to 2.88 goals/game in 12/13.

Rooney was Man Utd’s top scorer as an 18 year old in 04/05, scoring 11 goals playing as a winger in an offense that only produced 1.52 goals/game. He was also the leading goalscorer in 2 of the 3 most productive offenses that Man Utd had while he was there. In 09/10 they averaged 2.26G/g and he scored 26, and in 11/12 they averaged 2.34G/g and he scored 27.

Subtracting penalties, Rooney scored 205 league goals and added 118 assists in his career, while Ribery went for 100 goals and 127 assists. Interestingly enough, they ended up with the exact same G-PK+A/90 mins in their careers, 0.65.

Probably the best evidence of what I’m saying is that Ribery’s numbers are much lower in all the seasons before and after his Bayern stint. When your team is scoring close to 3 goals per game, it’s not too difficult to ping in a few crosses per game and rack up some assists. But on a less dominant team, Ribery didn’t have the ability to take over the game by himself like Rooney was able to.

Sourcesfbref.com/en/players/f61c7c4e/Franck-Riberyfbref.com/en/players/f07be45a/Wayne-Rooney