Exploiting the labour of love

“In the city and across the globe, the cultures people produce together contain the solutions that make economics possible. Since such sensibility is a common project with mutual appropriation the rule rather the exception, the economic goods that come out of this cornucopia are plausibly commonwealth as well. Some creators are handsomely compensated, but others, perhaps gratuitously appreciated for their “spirit”, are largely left out of the remuneration loop. A simple appreciation that any one’s genius ipso facto reflects the common genius would be a start toward shared responsibility. This justification for sharing does not replace others, nor eliminate the arduous moral and political struggles to achieve it. Instead, I mean that super-profits not only excessively exploit labor, the also exploit the labor of love – perhaps an even uglier injustice.”
Harvey Molotch, “Where Stuff Comes From”, Routledge, 2003, pp258-9, ISBN 0-415-94400-7