Therefore what upsets me is when collectors or patrons not only settle for less, but pay extraordinarily high prices for things that are of lesser quality. In my view it’s creating a market for things that do not deserve the highest prices.
Discussion
Always a pleasure to hear about your art patronage, Stephen. Perhaps you will inspire more art patrons over time.
It's far more beautiful and uplifting to see voluntary art patronage in the free market, rather than seeing artists allowing themselves to become dependent on government funding, and the compliance trap they enter, in exchange for blood-sweat-and-tears money stolen from taxpayers.
In the background of all of this is the opportunity cost of not buying Bitcoin with this money. So I am looking for something that is so high quality that I am willing to sacrifice a gigantic amount of Bitcoin for it. Otherwise I would be buying Bitcoin, right? I am going out of my way to support certain artists, because that’s how meaningful I find their work to be, and how much I don’t want to take their time for granted. It’s probably hard to convey just how much careful considerations go into these decisions to set aside thousands of dollars for a certain artist and say, “Do what excites you.”