So we try to do the opposite - set a high official price, let you know this is how much the thing "really" costs, and then offer discounts to people who demonstrate they're poor in some way Means-tested subsidies but also other shit
-
-
I'm not saying this never works People do live off of tips and donations I'm telling you, though, that tips and donations aren't a very GOOD living, because, while this may surprise you, rich people are often very cheap
Show this thread -
If they weren't, we wouldn't need to have taxes, would we We'd give healthcare to everyone for free and then ask people of means to donate to support the hospitals A lot of libertarians and ancaps point to volunteer orgs and charities as what should replace governments
Show this thread -
The problem, of course, is that these people are wrong, and charities generally suck at doing the work of governments If "Pay people what you can afford so they can afford to live instead of being an asshole" were a general thing that worked we wouldn't have rich people at all
Show this thread -
And it's a really perilous thing, bottom-up price discrimination People don't like thinking about how the sausage gets made They're selfish, yes, but what's more than selfish is people are SHORT-SIGHTED After a thing exists, no one wants to think about the work it took to make
Show this thread -
That's the Marxist shit about "alienation of labor" and "commodity fetishism" "Well the file exists, it's right there on the server, it doesn't COST you anything to let me download"
Show this thread -
When you give things away "for free" you make it seem like they didn't cost any of your labor or time to make, you create the impression they just appear by magic Price anchoring is a powerful effect, it shapes people's thoughts more than they realize
Show this thread -
And we live in an era where a whole lot of people are just willfully stupid, they just see "content" appearing as if by magic in their feed every moment of every day, and prefer not to think about the conditions under which it was created It naturally creates a vicious cycle
Show this thread -
I dunno man If the Internet worked as it was advertised in the heady Free Culture days there wouldn't be anything to be pissed off about Nobody would be trying to hire artists "for exposure", nobody would be paradoxically both Internet famous and real life poor
Show this thread -
Nobody would exist who had a decent job and disposable income but "doesn't pay for music" or "doesn't pay for porn" But they obviously do
Show this thread -
The way people would frame this if they were serious about this being about the poor having a right to enjoy art is that it's price discrimination, it's doing you a favor
Show this thread -
The argument that it SHOULD be free, the NATURAL price for all information is zero, you can't MAKE me pay anything for it even if I'm the richest person in the world is massively destructive All by itself that attitude sabotages the pay-what-you-want price discrimination model
Show this thread -
After all you just gave them moral permission to pay zero It's not me putting it up for free as a favor to the fans, and saying "You have a moral obligation to pay what you can" It's me doing my ETHICAL DUTY to release something that NATURALLY IS FREE
Show this thread -
And turns me from a laborer offering a sliding scale of payment to just a beggar asking you to give me money out of charity So people give less, often a lot less
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.