For more background on the idea of "universal tax rebate," apparently the correct term may be "indirect subsidy." See the original proposal by McChesney and Nic

For more background on the idea of "universal tax rebate," apparently the correct term may be "indirect subsidy." See the original proposal by McChesney and Nichols at http://www.thenation.com/article/death-and-life-great-american-newspapers/ http://www.thenation.com/article/death-and-life-great-americ... An excerpt: "We begin with the notion that journalism is a public good, that it has broad social benefits far beyond that between buyer and seller. Like all public goods, we need the resources to get it produced. [...] Just as there came a moment when policy-makers recognized the necessity of investing tax dollars to create a public education system to teach our children, so a moment has arrived at which we must recognize the need to invest tax dollars to create and maintain news gathering, reporting and writing with the purpose of informing all our citizens. [...] Let’s give all Americans an annual tax credit for the first $200 they spend on daily newspapers. [...] In effect, this means the government will pay for every citizen who so desires to get a free daily newspaper subscription, but the taxpayer gets to pick the newspaper–this is an indirect subsidy, because the government does not control who gets the money. [...] None of these proposed subsidies favor or censor any particular viewpoint. The primary condition on media recipients of this stimulus subsidy would be a mild one: that they make at least 90 percent of their content immediately available free online. In this way, the subsidies would benefit citizens and taxpayers, expanding the public domain and providing the Internet with a rich vein of material available to all." For a collection of more "subsidy" options see: http://www.freepress.net/resource/98570/public-subsidies-and-policy-interventions http://www.freepress.net/resource/98570/public-subsidies-and... . I'd love to see a free market succeed here, and maybe we should give it some more time — but I'm worried we may have already run out.