A Matter of Life and Death

By Brenda W. Clough

Look around you — the room you are sitting in as you read this. Perhaps you live in a cave, mysteriously equipped with wifi. A meditation room in a Tibetan monastery in the remote Himalaya, perhaps? No? Well! Then you know about the white-hot debate about health insurance that is raging in this country today.

What you are probably not aware of is how many creatives — writers, musicians, actors, dancers, artists — are going bare. By and large the arts do not pay enough for pe...