A person should be paid comparatively to the work that is provided. No one should have to scrape by in receiving only a pittance for work provided. On the other side of the coin (or dollar, in this age), what is a fair wage? How much should a person be paid just for entertaining the masses? These questions can be applicable in most all aspects of the United States' entertainment industry. Why does the public put up with paying the prices they do when it is obvious to even the most casual observer that they are getting fleeced? Movie ticket prices are $5.00 and up, up, up. Professional sports prices are outrageous for no really good reason (read Shaq and the like). I haven't been to a stage play in quite some time, but I remember asking myself, "Why does this cost so much?"
Much more so than the real heroes of society popular entertainers are highly revered, and idolized.. The real heroes being teachers, police officers, fire fighters, etc. Unfortunately, what makes a great entertainer often is diametrically opposed to what makes a genuinely honorable human being. Only a few of the people in the entertainment industry admit that if it wasn't for their talent to "play" well, they would, in the words of Drew Barrymore, "...be working in a shoelace factory putting those little plastic things on the end of the laces." Elvis Presley was another entertainer who realized his place in the hierarchy of society. When asked his opinion of the Vietnam war, he replied the it didn't matter what he thought, he was just an entertainer. Elvis is the king, but he knew that he was the king of rock and roll, not of the United States.
What does all this have to do with comics? The same thing going on in the other areas of the entertainment industry is happening in the world of comics. Pay for the writers and artists (and most probably the rest of the creative team), is much higher than in the past (prior to the 80's). The creative teams no doubt deserved more money than what they were being paid those many years ago; but to what extent? Why does a person who can draw some pretty neat pictures, or write stories of the things that have always been near and dear to his/her heart deserve to be paid more than America's teachers (no, I'm not a teacher)? This is the same question that can be posed of professional athletes. This is the same question that can be posed of actors. Aren't they all doing what they love to do? Isn't this a calling? If so, why all the money?
Aside from doing something that they love, writers also can exploit the fact that they have a medium from which to launch their personal opinions and feelings. As an added bonus, they have thousands upon thousands of eager fans to gobble up their stories and views as gospel.
Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD do it.
Will I continue to buy comics at $1.95 and up, or will I boycott the books to make a point? I'll buy the books of course, but I always have on my mind the fact that the person entertaining me is getting paid a great sum of money just to play, and the really important people in society don't have a nest egg already socked away at thirty-something (or twenty-something generation x for that matter). Resentment builds until the dam breaks and the chaff is flailed from the wheat. Don't ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee. Well, maybe not. But you just have to wonder.