[pp.int.general] Some parting thoughts

[Eric Priezkalns]

> IMHO the conclusion should be that journalist and artists are  
> decently paid as soon as they deliver their work.

I share your sentiment, but I caution whether this is a practical  
aspiration.  All over the world, people get paid at different times  
for what they do.  Some get paid in advance, some when they deliver,  
some not until much later.  We should avoid creating special rules for  
special classes of society like journalists and artists, when we don't  
intend (and would be ill-advised) to implement similar rules for other  
classes of society.  I pay my rent in advance and my salary gets paid  
in arrears, which is not ideal for me, but that doesn't mean we should  
try to dictate the timing of when all payments are made.

Also, don't forget that some artists get paid large 'advances' and  
never repay any of it, even though subsequent sales are not enough to  
match the 'advance'.  That's bad business but the world won't be a lot  
better because politicians try to turn bad businesses into good  
businesses - politicians have never been very successful doing that  
and they are better suited to concentrating on limiting the real  
unfairness in life.

> I don't know whether that applies in the US as well, but in Europe  
> it is normal that general contract law (which assumes equal parties)  
> is complemented by special contract law if one party is supposed to  
> be weaker: the employee, the consumer, and: the artist.

It is the same in the US, which inherits its legal system from the  
UK.  The basic principle is that contract law assumes relatively equal  
bargaining power but the US, like other countries, tends to impose  
special legal conditions on contracts like employment where the  
bargaining power is likely to be one-sided.

Eric