The facts of life: Joseph Farah teaches Economics 101 to a few whiny readers

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Friday, February 14, 2003 | Joseph Farah

[JohnHuang2]

With the debut this week of my new online intelligence newsletter, G2 Bulletin, I was reminded, once again, that there are still people out there who just don't get it.

It disappoints when I find that some WorldNetDaily readers don't understand basic principles – like the law of supply and demand and the rules of the marketplace. I expect more from WorldNetDaily readers. What am I talking about?

Well, while the initial response to our first premium online service was better than we expected, I was disturbed that a number of WorldNetDaily readers complained to me that I was charging "too much" ($199 a year) for this new subscription product.

"If this is truly vital information people need," one man said, "you have no right to charge so much for it. You have an obligation to make it affordable to everyone."

This is what I call "the entitlement mentality." And it surprises me that it exists even among readers of WorldNetDaily.

In other words, what this reader and others like him were saying is that I have no right to charge anyone for my labors. I'm sure all of those making this suggestion have no problem getting as much payment as they can for whatever service they provide to the public. But me? I'm supposed to give everything away.

Why do you suppose such an expectation would exist among some people?

Because we do give away so much at WorldNetDaily. Precisely because we provide a free Internet news service with no registration, no annoying pop-up ads and no fees, I think there is an expectation by some that we should keep giving more and more and more away.

My guess is those complaining about a subscription cost for a brand new service are probably the same people who complain to me constantly that there are too many ads on the free site.

Let's see – too many ads on the free site, too high a price on the paid site. Do you see a pattern here?

Now, I know these folks are in the minority. I know the letters I have received along these lines are actually small in number, considering some 5 million people read WorldNetDaily every month. I know I probably shouldn't even comment on these missives. But I can't help it. It bothers me that even some readers of WorldNetDaily don't understand the beauty, the majesty, the justice of free-market economics.

Do you know there are things I want that I can't afford? So I am constantly motivated to work harder to achieve those things. If everything I wanted came to me easily, I wouldn't work so hard. Because I can't afford a new Mercedes Benz this year, I don't complain to Mercedes Benz dealer that his price is too high. Instead, I drive a less expensive car. If money were no object, I would probably subscribe to every English-language magazine in the world. But money is an object, so I make tough choices about which magazines I purchase. I don't whine and cry to the publishers of magazines and accuse them of being greedy for charging too much.

That's the way the world works. At least that's the way my world works. I don't understand people who think complaining about prices being too high is somehow constructive.

By the way, you may notice that more and more Internet newssites are charging customers for basic services while others are requiring registration. Again, WorldNetDaily has resisted these temptations.

I'm sure most readers appreciate all this. I'm sure they like the fact that we have maintained a large, full-service newssite with no registration required, no fees and no pop-up ads. But, then again, I hear from people who subscribe to our free news alert service who cancel it because there are too many commercial pitches.

It takes all of one-tenth of a second to delete an e-mail. Yet, some reader complain to me that receiving those three or four extra e-mails from WorldNetDaily is too much of a burden for them. They write scathing letters of complaint.

Here are the facts of life, ladies and gentlemen: There's no free lunch in this world of ours. You are going to have to decide what kind of sacrifice you are willing to make if alternative media are really important in your life. You can't just say, "I don't like this, I don't like that." How are you willing to help?

Are you willing to buy products? Are you willing to look at advertising? Are you willing to sign up for free news alerts that include advertising? Are you willing to buy a premium service like G2 Bulletin? Are you willing to subscribe to Whistleblower magazine? Are you willing to pay a small fee – even $1 a month to defray our legal costs or support our investigative journalism?

Those are your choices. These are the facts of life.

[JohnHuang2]

Friday, February 14, 2003

Quote of the Day by Mr. Bird

[nutmeg]

bttt

[goldstategop]

Yup. Life is an exercise in a series of trade-offs. The question is if a premium product is worth paying for. The seller should have the right to charge a price he thinks making the product is worth and its up to the buyer to decide if its worth getting it. The beauty of the free market system is you get lots of choices and there ain't no such TAAFL anywhere, period. Its high time the whiners acknowledged the facts of life.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

Its high time the whiners acknowledged the facts of life.

Sounds like the whiners are communist wannabees everything for the good of all no matter at whos expence

And just like communism it ends up being for the good of one and a slave state for the majority!

[The Lake City Gar]

WorldNetDaily isn't worth $1.99 to conservatives let alone $199.00.

Maybe worth that much to liberals to keep it going because it's an embarrassment to conservatives.

[goldstategop]

WND's great and its books have all become New York Times best sellers. I mean the ones authored by Katherine Harris and Michael Savage. You may not have a use for it fine but most people like a newssite that doesn't toe the party line and goes to bat to weed out waste, fraud and abuse of power in government. That's the mission of a free press in a free society. WND worth all that free and I'm sure the ad-free scoops in the G-2 intel subscription service are worth every penny to their readers. Like Joe Farah said you have a choice and quit whining: too many Americans out there with an entitlement mentality who expect to be shielded from that every day unpleasantness called life.