Do we really have any field of work that is lucrative?
Every time farmers agitate in Delhi to cut a deal with the government, I wait for a slew of comments that say the “real issue" is that “farming is unremunerative." This is said by those who have compassion for farmers and also those who dismiss their demands. What they mean, in modern parlance, is that farming has a bad revenue model. If the world’s most popular consumer behaviour, eating, cannot make food production “remunerative," it makes me wonder what exactly is lucrative.
Is there a field of human activity in which participants say, “Our profession is remunerative"? Some individuals do well in almost all professions, but almost all of entrepreneurship appears to be “unremunerative". At least, at first glance. Film producers are struggling.
Almost all retailers are struggling. Most startups are not going to survive. There are venture capitalists who say they are struggling.
All actors, except maybe a half a dozen, are struggling. Publishing is “unremunerative" for publishers and writers. Writers, in every form and genre of writing, are struggling.
Even most politicians, who are actually entrepreneurs if we stop being humorous about what they really are, are struggling. All supremely talented athletes, barring a few at the very top in their discipline, are struggling. Take tennis.
It appears to be lucrative, but players who are not in the top 100 struggle to make money. Most of them make a loss, as they have to bear the costs of their own travel and stay. Like other entrepreneurs, they have to hustle for side jobs.
Last year, ESPN ran a story on the financial struggle of tennis pros. It featured Kiranpal Pannu, who was ranked 664th in the world in 2022. That year, “Pannu earned $6,771 in prize money.
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