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tomder55 · Sep 4, 2011, 01:44 AM

The old joke in the Soviet Union was 'they pretend to pay us and we pretend to work'. Glad to see you admit that you see authoritarian statism as a viable alternative .

joypulv · Sep 4, 2011, 04:15 AM

Yeah suppressing the profit motive that long was quite a feat. Look at them scramble now.
Besides the top .00001% got their percs and bennies and dachas anyway.

Back to Stallman, imagine if there were no GNU license at the bottom of every reference and map on wikipedia, and you had to subscribe or pay as you go. How about this site? Want to pay for this too?

tomder55 · Sep 4, 2011, 05:58 AM

This site is not free . I comply with the terms of the owners and in return I contribute to the Q&A and the discussions .

Wiki is the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.It gets revenue from other sources ;or do you think it really doesn't need funding ? It has had a revenue this year of $ 24.1 million .It collects revenues through donations and advertisers .
I have no problem with that ;but let's not pretend it is "free" It operates because someone is paying for it.

Edit

Perhaps one of the adminstrators can explain the funding for this site. I know it is owned by Advizo and Ram Prayaga is CEO .But I have not seen it's financials. Best guess is that we are a laboratory testing software that later gets sold for business functions .Again ,I'm perfectly fine with that They should make a profit.

paraclete · Sep 4, 2011, 05:45 PM

Originally Posted by tomder55

the old joke in the Soviet Union was 'they pretend to pay us and we pretend to work'. Glad to see you admit that you see authoritarian statism as a viable alternative .

So what is the joke in America today "we pretend to have prosperity and they pretend to believe us"? Capitalism has bankrupted America because in a system of buyer beware everyone forgot to beware. The sad part is it doesn't stand alone and your losses are also my losses. We need a better model than has existed and does exist. It doesn't work where the government isn't free to stimulate and restrict through manipulation of taxation, subsidy and interest rates,

I don't see authoritarianism as an alternative but I do see a role for government enterprise. where government tackles the big ticket items because capital isn't prepared to do so or where government maintains an industry because of its strategic importance. You see Tom I don't like the private toll road model as a way of getting roads built because that will only build the most profitable highways and the example can be carried over into many other areas of activity

joypulv · Sep 4, 2011, 06:36 PM

I never said wikipedia is free or even tried to define free (but I sent them $50 once).
But both that and this site are free in the sense of not requiring payment for answers. This site obviously sells ad spots. Wikipedia gets donations.
Complying with terms? Answering questions? That is your idea of not free? Come on.

paraclete · Sep 7, 2011, 04:54 AM

Originally Posted by joypulv

I never said wikipedia is free or even tried to define free (but I sent them $50 once).
But both that and this site are free in the sense of not requiring payment for answers. This site obviously sells ad spots. Wikipedia gets donations.
Complying with terms? Answering questions? That is your idea of not free? Come on.

Hey I would like payment for answers but no takers