I thought it was quite evident that this post was mostly tongue-in-cheek. To see some people immediately get defensive about it tells me that there's probably a grain of truth in it. First of all, I wasn't talking about the full-time pro. I meant the TRUE 'week-end warrior' who derives most of his income from his 'other' job (aka 'day job').

As far as 'breaking even', does your accountant take into account the time spent preparing for and performing the 'gig'? Being able to afford the new 'toys' (again, for the weekend warrior) is mostly a function of where you are financially at this point in your life. Many here go into retirement mortgage-free and with stable incomes of 150-200k/yr. For these people, weekend gigs are more recreational than income producing and more about feeding an ego than feeding a family.

Let's face it, unless you're a full-timer with a stable gig schedule (if such a thing exists in the lower levels of the music world), you do this for love of the music and for the gratification of being a performing musician. I believe that more than half (again, weekend wariors) would do it for free.
JMO.

chas