One quibble. I think Twitter has an incentive to show some kind of verification for celebrities since people generally join and use the platform to follow and interact with them. I find the journalist whining around it more to your point since it's generally the same people who say, "good journalism costs money" when people complain about paywalls to their articles.
Sure, it's like the swag bags. There's utility in that form of promotion. But, that's ultimately a business decision, and stands apart from the expectation of "free."
One more quick thing... this brings to my mind the notion of things like "Business taxes" and "Gasoline taxes" and "Import fees" and the like. All these fancifully-named things SHOULD be called what they are: Income taxes. Worse, they're income taxes on income that's already been taxed at least once!
I'm sure they're out there, but I haven't found a tax or fee "on business" that We The People DON'T pay.
Yes, indeed, all taxes are ultimately paid by the consumer. But, they aren't actually income taxes, they are consumption taxes. If you don't buy products, you don't pay the taxes baked into their prices.
As a frequent reader and occasional commenter, I wonder if this article was intended to guilt me into a paid subscription? Peter, how many paid subscribers do you have?
No guilt. I’ve run a couple paid articles for the paid subs and will do probably two paid a month as a thank you to the paid subs, but the large majority are and will be free.
One quibble. I think Twitter has an incentive to show some kind of verification for celebrities since people generally join and use the platform to follow and interact with them. I find the journalist whining around it more to your point since it's generally the same people who say, "good journalism costs money" when people complain about paywalls to their articles.
Sure, it's like the swag bags. There's utility in that form of promotion. But, that's ultimately a business decision, and stands apart from the expectation of "free."
Really well said! As usual! Thanks for posting it!
One more quick thing... this brings to my mind the notion of things like "Business taxes" and "Gasoline taxes" and "Import fees" and the like. All these fancifully-named things SHOULD be called what they are: Income taxes. Worse, they're income taxes on income that's already been taxed at least once!
I'm sure they're out there, but I haven't found a tax or fee "on business" that We The People DON'T pay.
Yes, indeed, all taxes are ultimately paid by the consumer. But, they aren't actually income taxes, they are consumption taxes. If you don't buy products, you don't pay the taxes baked into their prices.
As a frequent reader and occasional commenter, I wonder if this article was intended to guilt me into a paid subscription? Peter, how many paid subscribers do you have?
No guilt. I’ve run a couple paid articles for the paid subs and will do probably two paid a month as a thank you to the paid subs, but the large majority are and will be free.