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Subscriptions, not donationsSubscriptions, not donationsPosted Jul 28, 2002 7:53 UTC (Sun) by Gady (subscriber, #1141)Parent article: On the future of LWN
Basing LWN on (hopes for) donations is not only difficult to do, it's also Any kind of collection of money can be labelled as "regressive" or "progressive", though these terms are usually applied only to taxes. The more a tax takes into consideration the economic situation of a person's the more it is progressive. Thus the infamous poll tax is the most regressive of all, purchase tax is less regressive and income tax is the most progressive tax, as the lower clases pay practically nothing while the higher classes could pay (e.g. around here) up to 55%. Donations sound progressive - sure, why not? Everybody pays what they can. The rich will fork our serious dough, those who cannot pay will get the service for free. Right? Wrong. In practice, especially for small donations such as those that might be collected for LWN, the issue of "can't afford to pay" is meaningless. Collecting donations is a kind of "tax on good-heartedness". Good-heartedness is not restricted to the upper classes - if at all it goes the other way around. Do you really think all the guys who just claimed they donated 100$ to keep LWN running are corporate managers? Give me a break. So, to sum it all up, make LWN subscription based, all of it (possibly except the archives). You deserve to get payed. Your good readers should not subsidize all the blood-suckers (such as myself). And did I mention you can cound me in? Gady
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