This has to be one of the worst analogies on the subject I've ever seen. To fix it we would have to invent a device that can scan something the plumber has done and then recreate it on demand.
At that point, after years and years of studying to be the best plumber he can be, Joe Plumber goes out and does a job only to have some joker come up, scan his work and then provide his own plumbing service for 1/4th the price. How is Joe Plumber to compete? He could try dropping his prices to 1/4th but then the joker will just drop his again (since he has nothing invested he can do this). At some point, no one would be stupid enough to invest in learning to be a plumber ever again. Everyone would just get this magical copy device. Of course, the problem is that when that finally happened we would be locked into whatever we had when the last plumber stopped producing.
To fix it we would have to invent a device that can scan something the plumber has done and then recreate it on demand.
It's called China, and that's why prices for units of work in most industries have been falling, in real terms, for the last 30 years.
An author's unit of work is the same unit of work as a plumber's; the difference is that, in the author's case, the client is not the real client: the work is commissioned by a reseller (the editor), and the reseller wants to enjoy all the advantages of cultural work (low costs, infinite duplication) without any of the downsides. Whenever they find a downside, they force a law to remove it artificially.
At that point, after years and years of studying to be the best plumber he can be, Joe Plumber goes out and does a job only to have some joker come up, scan his work and then provide his own plumbing service for 1/4th the price. How is Joe Plumber to compete? He could try dropping his prices to 1/4th but then the joker will just drop his again (since he has nothing invested he can do this). At some point, no one would be stupid enough to invest in learning to be a plumber ever again. Everyone would just get this magical copy device. Of course, the problem is that when that finally happened we would be locked into whatever we had when the last plumber stopped producing.