Money at Medium? Not likely. Although I have hundreds of "followers", I mostly get no more than a few dozen readers. I get many stories chosen for distribution. But no extra traffic comes from that and no extra traffic is no extra money. People complain about that.

But what is Medium supposed to do? Raise membership costs? Run ads? Put a wealth tax on the big earners and redistribute that money?

I make much more money from a dozen or so articles at Hubpages, but I don't like their ad litter, so I don't write there now. I don't want to pay more than $5 a month here and I don't think the big earners would stand still for any meaningful wealth tax.

I think the smartest thing Medium could do is not pay people who aren't paying members. But that wouldn't change much for the little folk.

There's no money in this kind of writing because millions upon millions of us can do it. It's exactly like music and art: way too many sellers, not enough buyers. A very few lucky or extraordinarily talented people get significant money. For the masses, it's a hobby.

That's reality. Accept it or don't, it's still reality.