Kriston writes:

But with regard to this story, the significant point is that economic conditions in China are such that highly skilled labor can be organized (or exploited, if you prefer) as if it were the most basic unskilled labor. I’m not the professional economist, though, so I don’t know whether this collapse of categories is an unprecedented or even significant aspect of the global market. Ryan? Felix? Tyler?

Cappsy is talking about Chinese art sweatshops, where artists churn out copies of western masterpieces for pennies an hour. The quick answer is that the possession of skills alone doesn’t confer any bargaining power, the possession of skills valued by the market does. I might be awesome at drawing Ligers, but if no one needs Liger drawers, then I’m just another unskilled worker, competing with others at market determined rates.

That’s not the whole story, however. Even for workers with valuable skills, wages are determined by supply and demand. If there is a large pool of similarly skilled artists, then the wages for such workers will be bid down. In the sweatshop case, ability with a paintbrush shouldn’t be viewed any differently than other artisanal skills.
The big jumps in bargaining power and wages come from other avenues. On the one hand, skilled craftsmen can organize and erect barriers to entry. Guilds had this effect, as do modern professional organizations; both guarantee quality–to an extent–but also reduce labor supply and push up wages. The Chinese sweatshop workers, like many other skilled and unskilled workers before them, would no doubt have difficulty putting together a Monet Knock-off Painters Union.

On the other hand, a truly outstanding talent offering a unique product can remove himself from the system and develop pricing power. Damien Hirst, in other words, has a monopoly on Hirsts. This allows him to limit supply and raise the price of his art. Plus no one can enter the Hirst market and compete with him.
In other words, there’s nothing all that unusual, in a historical sense, about the Chinese example. China has tons of similarly skilled workers who would no doubt have difficulty unionizing and bargaining with management. They’re no different, really, from Chinese garment workers with incredible loom skills.