The way you have to look at it is, every $30k they pay you is a year's minimum pay in the real world. Over $100k means four years to live as a professional writer - not luxuriously, but still. If you're not jumping on that, I wouldn't be at fault for wondering how seriously you take this racket. Would I?
Yes, you would. Just because some people (incidentally, myself included) can live on $30K per year doesn't mean everyone can.
Not every writer has only him- or herself to look after. Some writers have kids -- sometimes even disabled kids. Some writers have to support their elderly parents. Some writers don't have spouses with job-provided health insurance. Some writers have health conditions that require expensive insurance AND still have to pay large monthly health care bills. Some writers have mortgages.
Have you looked at the cost of private insurance? Do you realise that when you're self-employed, the percentage of your taxes goes up to make up the difference an employer typically contributes?
Hell, in much of Southern California, $30K is hardly a living wage for a single person with their own apartment, even if they don't have to pay more than a couple hundred dollars a month for their work insurance. $1,000/mo for rent on a small apartment in a modest neighbourhood, $1,000/mo for insurance, that leaves $500/mo for taxes, food, utilities, transport, and, well, everything else.
That doesn't even get into the fact that some people actually LIKE their jobs. Like me.
Do you really think that a writer must sell their house and rent a room in someone else's, give up health insurance, stop saving for retirement, lower a lifestyle to which they've become accustomed and that feeds their creativity, stop saving for their children's university years, give up a fulfilling job they actually enjoy, and so on to be 'taken seriously'?
If so, you need to rethink.
Not all writers want to live the life of the poor artist in the garret. You ought not judge others for having different priorities from yours.
