What a relief, Chris. I thought you were really going for the throat there. Actually, I believe writers, good writers, should be considered among the elite. They do more for society than many of the others who consider themselves as such. My point is, that people, rightly or wrongly, judge us on how we present ourselves. And yes, it’s just my opinion, that we should present ourselves as professionals. But it’s not about snobbery, it’s about empowerment.

Allowing corporate America to use our talents, keeping the bulk of the revenue they generate for themselves and encouraging us to solicit from the public and each other rather than pay us our fair share is a system no thinking writer would want to perpetuate. There’s some elitism going on here, but it’s not coming from me. Thanks for your comment. It’s a controversial issue and deserves further discussion.

P.S. Everyone who goes to sleep each night in a dry bed after an adequate meal, has access to the internet and a Stripe account is elite in status, so let’s stop pretending that most of the people writing here don’t fall into that category. Less than 2.5% of people who live in parts of the world from which the majority of Medium writers hail suffer from severe food insecurity, and less than 14% are illiterate.

P.P.S. It’s popular now to use elite as a slur, but it’s mostly elite people who do so. My purpose in writing this is not to put other writers down but to encourage them to raise themselves up.