Why I Like the Idea of Patreon

For those who do not know, there is a website that allows you, dear readers, to pay me to write. This website is known as Patreon. And no, this is not another plea for you to become my patron, though if you were so inclined I would be much obliged. No, this blog post is about why I like the idea of Patreon.

For those of us who are liturgical type Christians (Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, etc) we are probably familiar with the idea of a patron saint. I know that we Orthodox either choose a patron saint when we convert, or our parents choose one for us when we are born/baptized. I know that in the West there was the idea of a patron saint for many different things and occupations; for example, Saint Christopher is the patron of travelers, Saint Michael the patron saint of soldiers, Saint Nicholas the patron of sailors (and others), Saint Dymphna the patron(ness?) of those with mental health issues. And there are patron saints of places as well, such as St. Ia, who is the patron(ness?) of a town called St. Ives.

From my understanding, from what I have been told by many Orthodox, this idea was not as common in the East, however it seems to be catching on - probably due to converts. Of course, I say not as common because there was an idea of praying to a saint for certain things. The Romans would pray to St. Anthony if they had lost something they wanted found, we Orthodox would pray to Saint Phanourios - and then bake a cake for his mother.

The idea of a patron was not only delegated to saints, but also to the wealthy and I guess anyone who could afford to. 

That's the wrong patron, but I'll take it

 

The Medici family is famous for being patrons of the arts, and indeed, many artists had patrons backing them. We have a lot of beautiful artwork because artists had patrons. It was seen as a good thing to support the arts.

And patronage was not limited to only art! There were patrons for writers *cough*, philosophers *cough cough*, architects, scientists, musicians, and many others.

In ancient Rome the relationship between the patron and the client (the person the patron sponsored) was a special one that included many benefits on both sides. The client could have legal representation, business deals, marriage deals, and other such things. The patron could expect to have his clients accompany him to the forum, or even war. It was seen as prestigious to have clients, and the more clients one had the more prestige.

Now, as to why I like the idea of Patreon.

For many, such things as painting, or writing, really are labors of love. They love making things. They love sharing ideas.

Not everybody is cut out to work in an office 40 hours a week, and indeed I think doing so has contributed to the decline of our society.

You spend 8 hours a day at work (typically, you could be working 4 10s, or maybe your job has a lot of overtime). This does not include the time spent getting ready, or the time spent in commute. Then you get home, and you spend a few hours maybe with your family, or if you are single maybe whatever hobby you have time for.

Then the weekend comes and you end up doing the chores you couldn't get to through the week, or running errands that don't include going to places that aren't open on the weekend. If you do have important things to do outside of normal business hours, oft times you have to take time off of work to go do those things, thereby missing out on your pay.

This used to not be as big of a problem if you were married and only had a single income, because you could go to work for 40 hours a week, and your spouse would tend to all of the errands and home things. And make no mistake, keeping house is no easy task. Whichever spouse is staying at home is certainly putting forth an effort to keep the household - it is exhausting in it's own way.

But, with inflation, the decline in the value of the dollar, rising gas prices, rising housing costs, and rising costs of living, it is not very feasible for your everyday person to have a single income - even single people. Instead - unless you land a very nice paying job - you are almost forced to have a dual income, or seek roommates, to help alleviate costs. If you add children into the mix then it becomes even more expensive to live - which is why so many people put off having kids until they are much older and more "established" in their careers.

We are sacrificing time with our families, sacrificing time to ourselves, to almost literally kills ourselves at the office.

Things almost seemed to be better during COVID for those who could work from home. Those people found themselves much more productive because they could take breaks as needed and de-stress. They realized that they didn't need to be stuck in a cubicle all day to be good at their jobs. They realized that they didn't have to sacrifice time with their families to be good at their jobs.

But, now that the lockdowns are over, many corporations are trying to force their employees to come back to the office. These managers ignore the fact that productivity went up, and instead focus on these big empty buildings they paid a lot of money to use. They can't justify the loss of money on these buildings, so they are trying to force their employees to come back to a soul sucking environment of micromanaging. They don't want to give up the buildings because of the sunk cost fallacy - even though they would be saving so much more money by either selling the building, or ending their lease.

So, we have suffered, we have been stifled, and we have sacrificed so much for a workforce that just does not care about us (though I will admit that there are great companies out there that do actually care for their employees).

But not everyone is suited for working in front of a computer all day. And yes, I realize the irony behind my statement as I sit here in front of a computer writing a blog post on my blog that has a Patreon page. The difference is that I can get up as I need to to move around, take a break, smoke a pipe, have some tea. I can take as long as I need to to get a new blog post up - whether that takes me a few hours in a day, or a few hours in a week.

And then we have our artists and our musicians. They love to create beautiful things for us to appreciate. With such platforms as Patreon they can actually do what they enjoy and earn a decent living doing so, as opposed to having to sit in an office all day and get around to doing what they love when they have time.

We creators are open to be creative. We are open to do what we love. We are free to just be us.

I've worked in offices before, and they sucked. I worked as Tier 1 tech support, and that was just so very draining. I hardly had time to spend with my family. I hardly had time to run errands. I very rarely was actually able to go to church. I didn't have time to be myself.

I worked 4 10s in Alaska. I actually loved that. Despite working 10 hour days (which was 11 hours minus an hour for lunch and two breaks) I still had three days off a week, which meant more time to decompress. And honestly, to this day, I still say that was the best employer I've ever had. The main issue is that the job started to be too demanding on my back. I honestly loved the work, but it got to the point that I was missing days to recover. And they absolutely tried to work with me on my medical stuff. I just dropped the ball, because depression sucks.

I can't see myself sitting in an office for another job - because believe it or not, that is terrible for my back and for my migraines - and unfortunately, I can not do manual labor jobs any longer. That is what I was doing in Alaska, and that is what I was doing here in New Mexico. Even just standing around trying to sell firearms when I briefly moved back to Tennessee was too torturous on my back.

My oldest brother is getting on in age. He is a very ancient 42. He is getting to the point where he can not do much manual labor any more. Back issues run in my family. He's been taking days to recover more than he has spent days working this year. His employer technically has him working from home since so much of what he does can be done via computers. But his employer still calls him out to job sites and doing things that his back cannot handle.

Before working in the industry my brother now does, he was trying to be a video game designer. He, and some friends, actually made a game that they tried to get started via Kickstarter, and had some good reviews for the portion of the game that they had completed up to that time. Unfortunately, he and his friends were not able to get enough money to keep going.

With Patreon, my brother could start doing video game design again. He could probably make pretty good bank doing so - considering all of the other video game designers who are making a decent buck. Just doing a quick DuckDuckGo search I've found creators on Patreon who are making a decent amount, like these guys who are making +$42,000 per map pack they create. They aren't even making games, just maps for D&D, and it seems that they are releasing a new map pack to be used in online D&D games about once a week. So, +$42,000 a week for a whole year (assuming they do release once a week for a year) is over $2 million dollars a year.

I'm not saying that they are making that much, but they have the potential to make that much. They have three tiers, $1, $5, and $10, so it isn't like their patrons are breaking the bank to have these maps created (although I do understand that not everyone can even afford those prices).

So what options do I have if I want to make money? What options do I have if I want to contribute to my household and to pay child support (which I honestly have no issue paying)?

With Patreon, and other such platforms, I can get paid to do what I love. I'm already sitting at home and writing (usually), so why not get paid to do what I love? I do not ever expect to make anywhere close to $2 million a year, but I have figured why not get paid - even just a little bit - to do something that I love and have a passion for. I would love for this blog to become a good source of income for myself.

Right now, I have one Patron. And I am so very thankful for him. I don't net a whole lot of money from that, but it does show me that people appreciate my writing. And that means more to me than any monetary amount every could.