Money Moments: let’s talk money!

How do you make ends meet in the arts? And what if you don’t make ends meet at the end of the month? (How) could we support each other better in this? Welcome to one of the ‘Money Moments’ of Common Income: open and intimate conversations about money, in search of a common pilot project against precarity.

During the Money Moments of Common Income, we break the taboo on money. For two hours, in a circle with about ten artists and cultural workers, we shared our needs, doubts and ideas about income. We deprivatised our financial household and brainstormed about how we could improve things together.

We tackled questions like:

• What does income mean in your life?
• What do you struggle with in your situation?
• What would you benefit from?
• To what extent would you be willing to share income?

Money Quotes

These are some striking quotes that occured during the Money Moments.

“Real solidarity is more than giving money. It is swallowing the stress about money together. Or creating equality in the relief from that stress.”

“Sharing money in a collective doesn’t make you richer, but it makes you less alone in your frustration.”

“We shouldn’t just support one another to cope with precarity. We should fight the system that maintains it.”

“The best invention of capitalism? Singles.”

“Money is like Lego blocks. We should use it to build something together, instead of just exchanging it amongst each other.”

“I’m 60 but I still don’t own a house. Maybe my children have been my investment?”

“Being an artist, I didn’t want money to become a determining factor in my career. That’s why I do sex work: little time, lots of money. Sex work is my funding. It helps me to pay my performers.”

“We are the boomers’ children. They sucked up all the money. We are condemned to rent.”

“My husband and I, we divide the costs fifty-fifty. But privileges are never fifty-fifty.”

“Ten years ago, you could buy twice as much food with 300 €. I switched from the bio shop to Aldi.”

“The biggest solidarity system in the world is called Western Union.”

“The currency of precarity is solitude.”

“In Austria, since covid, street beggars are begging with a QR code.”

“Some people make a lot of money out of money. Nowadays, if we want to transfer 2000 € to our Balkan partner organization, it’s cheaper to take the plane and give it cash.”

“Are we afraid of losing money or of becoming more dependent?”

“In poorer countries or communities, people seem to support each other far more easily than in richer environments. Probably less money is balanced by more trust.”

“Sometimes, I steal expensive healthy food in supermarkets and bio shops. I don’t feel guilty about it, I see it as a kind of rebellion as a citizen. A low salary as an artist is an effect of the system. I have the same rights as others.”

“I felt ashamed about falling back on social support during covid.”

“If we want anything to change in society, we need to break the taboo on money first.”

“The real question is not whether you can make ends meet. It is which network you can fall back on when you can’t.”

“Life is a constant choice between earning money and realizing your artistic dream. Now I have an in-between life.”

“Being 34 years old, I am excellent at being precarious and spending less and less.”

“The downside of countries with a good social system (like Flanders) is that it’s seen as a failure if you fall out of it.”

“My life was extremely rich in other aspects than money.”

“There’s something uncomfortable in earning more than your colleagues just because you’re older.”

“In Serbia, I was a billionaire at a certain moment, because of inflation.”

“There’s an important difference between being precarious and feeling precarious.”

“The more money I earn, the higher my fear of losing it.”

“Money shouldn’t only be an individual responsibility.”

“One day I feel very rich, the next day very poor, depending on whom I’m comparing myself with.”

“I have a bizarre relationship with money. It is not important to me at all, as long as there’s a minimal basis. If not, I am panicking.”

“We should consider the concept of a negative tax: paying a certain percentage for everything you earn above the average, in solidarity with those who earn less.”

“It took me years to accept that my partner is a spender.”

“Could we imagine not talking about ‘my money’ but ‘our money’?”

“Intergenerational exchange is not endless. There’s also a limit to it. My son is studying again, I support him, but I’m working fulltime for it. And my mother doesn’t have enough pension. So, it’s a sandwich from both sides. I don’t want this to restrict me.”

“It’s easy to share money that is not really yours.”

“Many artists are pretending they make money from their art, but many of us are just hustling.”

“Since I got the artist’s status, there’s safety for the first time in my life. Suddenly I feel like a rich girl. I have never been used to spending money.”

“To avoid that sharing money becomes charity you need a circle of trust, a form of proximity, a caring network.”

“In Belgium I’m surprised by the high pressure to pay back your friends, as if social relations should be even in the end. In Ireland we don’t know this kind of checks-and-balances amongst friends.”

“With some friends we contribute to a small fund for a refugee friend of one of us, whom I don’t know myself. Sharing money in anonymity is unlearning individuality.”

“How to pay taxes if the government is not taking care of you?”

“In the small village in Greece where I was raised, I could live on 100 € per month, because the community worked very well. If you helped the goat breeder you got a goat in return.”

“When I don’t earn enough money, I feel bad about not making it. It’s a form of pride.”

“I’m earning money, my partner is not. He feels guilty about it.”

“As a single mother I own an apartment, but my father pays the internet every month.”