See, the problem with something like this is that circumstances matter.
I like classical music. I like a lot of things. I do *not* like the feeling that someone's trying to blackmail me - and that is how subway musicians feel to me. "Here, I'm giving you this cool stuff... now you should pay me for it."
Sure, they rarely if ever actually badger anyone to pay - there's usually not even a sign requesting donations, just a container into which you could drop money if you felt like it - but I DO believe in giving money for value received. When a good subway player entertains me, I feel an obligation to reward him - and that's an obligation I never asked for, never agreed to. It feels like an imposition. So if anything I tend to feel an obligation NOT to be entertained by the subway player.
Now that I'm analyzing it a bit, I recognize there's an irrationality there somewhere. But that's how I feel about it.
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Date: 2007-04-10 04:28 pm (UTC)I like classical music. I like a lot of things. I do *not* like the feeling that someone's trying to blackmail me - and that is how subway musicians feel to me. "Here, I'm giving you this cool stuff... now you should pay me for it."
Sure, they rarely if ever actually badger anyone to pay - there's usually not even a sign requesting donations, just a container into which you could drop money if you felt like it - but I DO believe in giving money for value received. When a good subway player entertains me, I feel an obligation to reward him - and that's an obligation I never asked for, never agreed to. It feels like an imposition. So if anything I tend to feel an obligation NOT to be entertained by the subway player.
Now that I'm analyzing it a bit, I recognize there's an irrationality there somewhere. But that's how I feel about it.