Then when all of society is like that you start wondering why there are no more new really good books being written, and why all the Hollywood films that come out are crap and regurgitations.
Yes, it's a good thing we had strong copyright laws back in the day to protect Bach, Beethoven, Plato, Aristotle, Chaucer, etc, or we'd be in such trouble.
If you're making art just for the money, you probably suck anyways.
And if you bake bread just for the money then those breads probably suck anyways. And if you write software just to make a living then that software probably is trash. And if you build cars, or waiter at diners, or drive taxis, then you probably just deliver bad, bad goods and service. Again, this is exactly what the Marxists say when they argue against capitalism. So long as people do things out of self-interest it sucks. (BTW, all the great classical composers such as Bach or Beethoven earned a wage from kings.)