The Impotence of Being Earnest

The designers who signed the First Things First Manifesto are understood as the upper class. Soar refers to them as the usual suspects in his article. When I read the First Things First Manifesto I was a little judgmental and frustrated with what was being proposed. I understand that these designers want to extend their skills to more worthy causes such as for educational or environmental purposes, however, the first thing that popped into my head was, “how will they make money to survive?” Then I realized, that the usual suspects who signed the manifesto don’t need to worry about money right now, they have spent their entire careers working in commercial advertising so they are pretty well off (and upper class) Like Soar mentions, what about the rest of us? What about the middle class designers who struggle to make ends meet. I am sure they would rather use their talents to better society and stay clear of commercial design; however it is just not in their budget to do so. If the usual suspects want to shift their priorities and have the means to do so, then nobody is stopping them. They can’t however expect all designers to shift their priorities when the middle class designers are not making the same pay check as they are.