4 ms·
Something ironic about this article being behind a paywall
by gnarlouse 3y ago
Something ironic about this article being behind a paywall
- throwaway290 3y agoThere's a difference between getting paid for what you didn't make (land) or for what you did make (journalism).
- brookst 3y agoBad analogy. Journalists are to facts as landlords are to land.
- zvmaz 3y agoJournalists put in labor, as you probably do to put food on the table.
- brookst 3y agoLandlords put in capital and labor. Practically nobody rents bare unimproved land.
- throwaway290 3y agoYeah of course, they put their precious sweat and blood into going to the bank to show that they own land to get some credit so they can hire people to do the rest But that's the minority anyway, those who were born into rent extracting elites need to not lift a finger.
- brookst 3y agoYour anger is blinding you to reason. I’m fine hating on landlords, but a paywall in front of an article is literally exactly the same thing: a way for a corporation to extract rent.
- throwaway290 3y agoI'm not angry, I'm just ridiculing your inconsistent or communist beliefs. People being paid for results of their labor is fundamental. Company makes you pay for access to their work in order that they get paid and continue doing that work. Land is not result of anyone's work.
- throwaway290 3y agoBad analogy. Not only land is finite, journalists are not keeping you from accessing facts. I have accessed many a fact today and not one journalist tried to extract rent from me imagine that
- brookst 3y agoI’ve walked many thousands of miles on land where nobody tried to extract rent. It is when you try to move into a building that someone wants rent. Just like when you want to benefit from someone’s work to convert mere facts into a story.
- throwaway290 3y agoYou can take facts that you learned without any journalist trying to extract rent from you and turn them into a story, sell that story and be rich. You can also take facts from paywalls article and use them to write a story, same thing.
- potatopatch 3y agoFacts are basically incapable of having the market dynamics of land, even with a total draconian rework of IP law.
- gnarlouse 3y agoAnd the article is about an individual who, due to a mounting debt burden, cannot afford either. This is the irony to which I refer. But I can see your perspective, too.
- brucethemoose2 3y agoIts a different kind of tragedy. Subs like this encourage siloization. That $26/month is only efficient if you read NYT pretty regularly (at the expense of reading stuff from other outlets), not if you read an article or two every month.