Creativity
Creativity's kind of weird in that it's quite human-exclusive. Penguin prostitutes, monkey handymen, and insect menial labourers all exist, but no other species has anything quite like the creative industries. This is further supported by the fact that animals (probably) don't have gods, spirits, cults, religions, or legends like we do. At first, creativity was a by-product of our intelligence and manifested in religion, cooperation, and problem-solving. In other words, it was just another survival mechanism. But once humans figured out how to trade shells and mint coins, humans also figured out how to assign values to things. And then how to assign values to actions.
So how much is a thought worth? A creative endeavour? Can you put a dollar sign on Plato's The Republic, or the theory of relativity, or Fermat's last theorem, or the fundamental theorem of calculus, or Beethoven's fifth symphony? Well, I'm cheating a little. It's a lot easier to put a value on a film, or an advertisement campaign, or a job as a designer, or a museum. All of those are part of the oft neglected creative industries.
Even if creative work is hard to value, technology lets us see how the market values it. Collectively, creative work has generated 2.25 trillion dollars of revenue across the world, including TV, newspapers, and visual arts. The US itself values the industry at $44 billion. But the aforementioned questions of a thought's worth still remain.
Going back to ancient times, creative works were commissioned by the state and were seen as a cost of running an empire, similar to having roads. Without roads, people couldn't go anywhere; without art, people would be bored out of their minds. Somewhere along the line, artists went straight to the public for money, putting their work out there for the world to see (evident by the fact that governments typically don't commission creative work other than propaganda).
This happened somewhere within the past couple centuries. Creative culture transitioned from being a constructed societal framework built by governments to bottom-up societal developments rooted in the people themselves. Movies aren't made because governments want to brainwash citizens anymore, they're made because citizens themselves want to say something that other citizens will listen to. Designers don't make fashionable clothing because some nobleman wants to go to a costume party (which were actually really extravagant in the 19th century) but rather because there's popular demand for what they come up with. Scientists don't think up new theories and frameworks because a government told them to but rather because there's a market for their applications. Culture is no longer a response to creativity, but rather in parallel with it.
It's worth noting that there were and definitely could be exceptions. NASA and space exploration were very politically driven during the mid-to-late 20th century, although the first image of a black hole is everything but. There was a lot of state-commissioned propaganda during WWII, but still a fair amount of independent criticism of war efforts by newspapers.
So how much is a song, or a theory, or a thought worth? Well, it depends on the demand. Fresh anti-nazi propaganda isn't worth a penny today, but would've been worth something during WWII. Fermat's last theorem has never had monetary worth because we never found a use for it. People are paid lots of money to research economics because it makes money. And people have always been willing to spend money on entertainment like film, literature, and music. I guess creativity is no different than kitchenware, furniture, or housing: it's just another product.
Sources:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/12/creative-industries-worth-world-economy/
https://qz.com/928235/the-business-of-creativity-is-worth-44-billion/
So how much is a thought worth? A creative endeavour? Can you put a dollar sign on Plato's The Republic, or the theory of relativity, or Fermat's last theorem, or the fundamental theorem of calculus, or Beethoven's fifth symphony? Well, I'm cheating a little. It's a lot easier to put a value on a film, or an advertisement campaign, or a job as a designer, or a museum. All of those are part of the oft neglected creative industries.
Even if creative work is hard to value, technology lets us see how the market values it. Collectively, creative work has generated 2.25 trillion dollars of revenue across the world, including TV, newspapers, and visual arts. The US itself values the industry at $44 billion. But the aforementioned questions of a thought's worth still remain.
Going back to ancient times, creative works were commissioned by the state and were seen as a cost of running an empire, similar to having roads. Without roads, people couldn't go anywhere; without art, people would be bored out of their minds. Somewhere along the line, artists went straight to the public for money, putting their work out there for the world to see (evident by the fact that governments typically don't commission creative work other than propaganda).
This happened somewhere within the past couple centuries. Creative culture transitioned from being a constructed societal framework built by governments to bottom-up societal developments rooted in the people themselves. Movies aren't made because governments want to brainwash citizens anymore, they're made because citizens themselves want to say something that other citizens will listen to. Designers don't make fashionable clothing because some nobleman wants to go to a costume party (which were actually really extravagant in the 19th century) but rather because there's popular demand for what they come up with. Scientists don't think up new theories and frameworks because a government told them to but rather because there's a market for their applications. Culture is no longer a response to creativity, but rather in parallel with it.
It's worth noting that there were and definitely could be exceptions. NASA and space exploration were very politically driven during the mid-to-late 20th century, although the first image of a black hole is everything but. There was a lot of state-commissioned propaganda during WWII, but still a fair amount of independent criticism of war efforts by newspapers.
So how much is a song, or a theory, or a thought worth? Well, it depends on the demand. Fresh anti-nazi propaganda isn't worth a penny today, but would've been worth something during WWII. Fermat's last theorem has never had monetary worth because we never found a use for it. People are paid lots of money to research economics because it makes money. And people have always been willing to spend money on entertainment like film, literature, and music. I guess creativity is no different than kitchenware, furniture, or housing: it's just another product.
Sources:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/12/creative-industries-worth-world-economy/
https://qz.com/928235/the-business-of-creativity-is-worth-44-billion/
A lot of people say that creative jobs are a waste of space because they don't technically contribute directly to improving livelihood of the populous, but I disagree because not only does it bring a lot of economic benefits as you have pointed out, but also because it is one of the most incredible things our civilization has to offer. There is a reason people worship Socrates as if he was super human, yet even the most brilliant workers go unrecognized. There is something special about being different.
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