What's Killing the Creative Class: Scott Timberg Explains

Scott Timberg, the author of Culture Clash, explains what's killing the creative class in his new book and at Jacket Copy. Reviewing the book, Andrew Keen writes that Timberg's argument is supported by "an avalanche of empirical evidence from across the music, publishing, newspaper, movie and architecture industries..." More:

Timberg warns in his new book, "Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class," that the arts economy — those of us who make a living by inventing and curating ideas and culture — is "melting."

"The middle is withering," he warns, "like a garden starved for rain."

From musicians to novelists to book editors to video-store clerks to architects, Timberg explains, our entire creative class is in crisis. Yes, there may be blockbuster artists still making a fortune, he acknowledges, but the vast majority of creative people are struggling.

Timberg includes himself in that category: an arts and culture journalist, he was laid off from his staff writer job at the Los Angeles Times in 2008. He describes getting a call from his despairing wife. "The bank," she gasped, "is suing us." Their "little house," where they lived in with their infant son, was being repossessed because Timberg could no longer afford his mortgage payments.

After losing his job at The Times, Timberg — a self-described "risk averse" child of the middle-class suburbs with a deep affection for "middlebrow" culture — "limped" through the next few years, earning less and less money for his journalism. "Of course," Timberg notes dryly, "I had plenty of company." [...]

More than a few poets in this creative class, who can relate! (Including poor guy, William Blake.) Read more at Jacket Copy.