Working for Money

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Okay, to begin with, this post is not picking on anyone. It might seem like I am, but I’m not really. There are just certain concepts that I need to perhaps make you think through, and consider, because technology has changed, but people haven’t thought through the implications of it. And for some reason the right side of the isle has REALLY PECULIAR feelings about work and about what it respects. And look, here I’m saying I have those issues too, and I had to THINK through them.

We all of us — or most of us. If you’re over 90 it’s only 50/50 it applies to you — were raised in an intellectual environment filled with Marxism, and it comes through.

Yesterday on twitter I came across a post by someone I like and whose opinions — with some occasional croissant flakiness, but who doesn’t have that? — I generally respect. Or at least understand. But her twitter said she’d read Instapundit since 9/11, but now was done. I was taken aback, and because I work for the site, I read her post.

What egregious crime had Glenn committed? Well, he asked people consider donating to instapundit on Giving Tuesday. And because he takes expensive vacations (!) has a day job, etc, he shouldn’t ask, and therefore she wouldn’t read him again.

To be fair to her, later, in an exchange with me — well, you know. Mom always said the beggar might go without alms, but not without a reply — she clarified that what offended her is that Giving Tuesday is for charities, and Glenn doesn’t need the money, and is taking bread from the mouths of widows and orphans BLM and the UNICEF.

Okay, I’m being mean. She’s a nice lady, and I’m sure she donates to children in need, and her parish’s charities. And that’s fine. But those organizations I mentioned? Well, it turns out Giving Tuesday is a UN organized thing, (yeah, there’s an official story, but it’s big because the UN piled on) so absolutely that’s what they mean you to give to.

However, let’s assume that Giving Tuesday is “for people in need.” Yeah, I also don’t think the boss is. I don’t know. I’m not privy to his paychecks and bank account. Yeah, I’ve seen his vacation photos. Yeah, his lifestyle looks nice. That’s fine. He’s not in need.

You know though, he pays a technical team to keep the site running (and I swear guys, I break it every month. It’s a gift.) and unhacked. And even now that he’s not the only poster, he herds cats with all of us, and — judging by my own work load between this blog and instapundit, where all I do is “Night DJ” — I’d be shocked if he takes less than 2 or 3 hours A DAY. And probably more. So yeah, he has a day job. And at night, while his colleagues are chilling, or getting drunk or whatever, he’s at the keyboard. Because I am. Those who’ve visited know. Evenings/early nights, Dan is watching something, and I’m sitting at the laptop, writing tomorrow’s post, culling/looking over comments, instaposting.

So, he does it for fun. Why should you donate to him? Doesn’t he have enough?

The Marx coming through stuck in my craw. HARD. I’m not going to say I’m without sin. I mean, guys, I didn’t ask for money for a long time, because I was afraid of that type of reaction, and after all we were surviving.

Then we weren’t and I needed to ask. And my family had an odd condition. “Okay, but if you’re going to ask for money, you must promise to do an annual fundraiser. Because if you had been doing that, we’d not be in this situation. And it’s not like you don’t do the work, or have the traffic.”

So, I do a fundraiser, in July. But I still edge it around with “This is not a need-fundraiser.” Partly because I hate to beg. Partly because I’m terrified of the reaction above. And partly because I’m even more terrified that people in worse shape than I are going to hurt themselves trying to give me money.

All of this amounts to rats in the head. MY HEAD. Big, stinking Marxist rats. Begging — I’m not begging. I’m reminding people that time and effort go into the work you see on the page. The reaction above — Yeah? I’m not responsible for the rats in other people’s heads. People hurting themselves — they are adults, right? I’m not holding a gun to their heads. I’m not asking for your entire life savings, either. Objectively, I’m pretty happy when people give me $10 once a year. (And if everyone who reads here at least twice a week did that, I’d have more than made my goal. And yeah “if everyone” is bs. NOT saying everyone should, just that I’m not asking for an unreasonable amount. Or any amount. Just saying “if you find value…”)

Now, does Glenn Reynolds need the money? Do I? I don’t know about Glenn. Nor should I. This is one of the classical problems of a communist regime. How do you know what anyone needs? During my highest grossing years, we’d made the mistake of buying a house that was a money pit and were bleeding out more than I made for two half college tuitions, not counting books and maintenance on what the two young men couldn’t cover with catch as can work. (Which was all their schedules allowed.) Also during that time we took a vacation in the South of France. I don’t know that I posted pictures. But as it happens, I paid for none of it. It was covered. Or we couldn’t have done it. Do I know the boss’s vacations aren’t paid? Nope. One of the weird perks of our job is that people give us stuff.

But let’s say he’s as well off as he seems to be, okay? Does that mean he doesn’t deserve to be paid? Why?

Let’s put this another way: say someone came to your front door, rang the doorbell and asked if you needed the lawn mowed. It sure is looking scruffy, so you say sure and how much. He says $50. Cool then. He mows the lawn. You like his work. Then he comes for payment and you ask him: “Do you need the money? Do you have savings in the bank? Do you have another job? Are you taking vacations?”

What would you think of someone who did that?

I can see the stomp stomp stomp “it’s not the same thing!” You’re d*mn right, it’s not. It’s more like someone comes to your front door every week and says “Okay if I mow the lawn?” And you go, “Sure.” I mean, you were paying someone to do it, but weren’t too thrilled with this work, and this guy is just…. doing it.

Okay, so, every time he rings the doorbell, he has a little note he leaves behind that says “If you feel my services were worth something, donate at–” Kind of like the donate link on the side of instapundit — or most other blogs. But he doesn’t say “pay up or I stop” so you don’t. And then one day he grins and says “Hey, it’s Giving Tuesday. Would you care to kick in some cash?”

Then you are offended. Look, he has a top of the line riding mower. He wears brand name sneakers, and look at that jacket. His jacket is better than yours. You’ll never let him mow your lawn again!

THAT is what it actually is like.

Was it silly of Glenn tying his request to Giving Tuesday? Well, I have official funding days. He doesn’t. I ask on those days. But before, when I wasn’t asking for money openly, I had silly occasions. Like Feb. 29 being blogger tipping day.

And yeah, I can see Glenn finding it hilarious to ask for money on a day for UN approved charities.

But does it deserve a “Stomp, stomp, stomp, I’ll never read him again!”? Does it really? WHY?

Well, because he doesn’t NEED it. So, how dare he ask?

Because he does the work. That’s it. He does the work. And by your own admission, you use his service regularly. Do you pay for a newspaper subscription? Did you, once upon a time? Or did you go and investigate the newspaper’s assets, and how much they got from subscriptions, then go “Well, they don’t need it. How dare they ask?”

BUT SARAH! you say, and go back to the analogy. “He came and mowed the lawn. I didn’t make him. I just used what was being freely offered.”

Sure. Because that’s the model. How did you know your digital lawn needed mowing, when it was new as paint? Or that any one blog would provide something you wanted?

So bloggers set up their site, and gave things for free. This is not so much the model anymore. A lot of people set it up in substack from day one. Though if they’re smart, they do some for free too.

But it is work. Glenn, even with co-authors, is one of the few blogs still continuing from the post 9/11 days. And this very humble blog is now — dear LORD — 15 years old in daily posting. 3 hours a day or so. Sometimes 4. (I need to teach my assistant to work the comments. But I have one because I fundraise. And you trade money for time, you know?) Nearly every day. While on vacation or sick, or when we went away a week for my son’s wedding, I might skip Glenn. I rarely skip here, without lining guest posts up.

And work deserves payment. If I were mowing someone’s lawn, I would expect payment. And providing thoughtful opinion pieces, I grant you, is done inside, and in the warm. And I might have killed the sensitivity on my fingertips, but I don’t have calluses. It is still work.

The time I spend on this, day in and day out means I’m paying someone to weed my scruffy garden no one has cared for until we bought it. Means I clean once every two weeks, even though I hate messes. Means time taken from novels. (I AM doing the overdue chapters, I swear.) This and the time spent on Insty means I go to bed late, get up early, and have a list of things to do in my head.

Do I do it anyway? I enjoy it. And I can do it. And it’s, in a way, fun. Also, it funds. (Yeah, this year very slowly, but I anticipate hitting fully funded between all the sources by July.) So I can pay people to do the other stuff.

But if it’s not funding at all…. well. I’m putting 3 or 4 hours up the spout, every day. What do you think I’d do?

Well, I’d shutter the blog, say thank you for all the fish. Maybe start that craft business on the side. Maybe write moar novels. Maybe start that “sex with an alien” sex line I keep threatening every time we’re pinched. (It’s a joke. But we I do deploy it every time we’re pinched.)

The thing is, you see, time is money. I couldn’t really afford to do this for free for many years, but I did it, because to begin with I hoped it would be publicity. That’s sort of mixed, though instapundit IS publicity. And that came from having this blog and being known. So in a round about way it worked. But enough for the work I put in? Ah, no. And the time I spent here I didn’t spend on anything else. And my family was DEFINITELY so tight we squeaked for most of that time. I felt it had to be done. So I did it. But I was stupid doing it for free.

The family were right to say I should ask. My Marxist notions of “but I don’t need it” were wrong. I hurt my family by not fundraising; by being too scared.

And now we get into being scared. Every time I fund-raise, and when I post this at instapundit tonight, there will a commenter of many sock puppets (or perhaps an office that works at trolling. There are indications that way) who will come in the comments under many, many personas to talk about how greedy I am, and how I am all about the money, (like being on the right is lucrative or something) and how I want the money for purposes that he/she/it/them imagines will disgust my “right wing” readers. Hence why his “ex-marine” (sic) persona claims I want the money for my sex game room (something that ANYONE who met me in person probably giggles about. I mean, even if I had the money, who has the energy? Who has the head space? Who doesn’t have the arthritis?)

It’s stupid. It’s silly. It’s an organized operation (fairly sure from what I see in the back panel) dedicated to demoralizing the right.

And it works. Every time I mention fundraising, or link a friend in trouble (I always donate, too, but normally anonymously) I cringe. Because all that bilge is going to be thrown at me, and some people are soft-headed enough to buy at least part of it. I’ve never seen it, but I can imagine it “Well, she and her husband are well off. He has a job. She writes novels. They go to conferences. They visit friends. Her sons have jobs.”

All of which is true. (You’d be amazed though how little novels pay. Though Indie pays better than Trad. And conferences are a net drain.)

But not the point. In fact, utterly beside the point. I do this. I do the work. No one is either forcing you to read or to pay. But if you read, if you read for reasons other than to find something to be offended by, if you’re a regular… well…. I bought many magazines at $50 a year back in the day for one columnist who wrote a column a month. And as for instapundit, have you checked what your local or national newspaper subscription is?

It’s a service. Sane people who expect a service to continue don’t ask if the people doing it need the money, but only “Are they doing it to my satisfaction?” And give, if they can what they can, so the people performing the service don’t have to abandon it and oh, I don’t know, I keep joking my retirement plan is being a walmart greeter. (More likely than an alien sex line. I don’t have the voice for it. And who is that inventive?)

Here’s the thing, though, the trolls shame us for fundraising because it works. Because a lot of you have forgotten the bad years, when you subscribed to a magazine for that one, precious column. Because you’ve forgotten the cost of a newspaper subscription. It’s on line. It’s free. HOW DARE THEY ASK FOR MONEY FOR THE WORK THEY DO?

The right doesn’t have the big pockets. We’re not astroturf. Some of you sent very generous donations (you know I’m grateful, right?) But most of the donations we subsist on? $10 here. $5 there. $20 now and then. What people can afford right then. And we do all right. Because we have the numbers.

But if the trolls, or the people who don’t think about what they’re saying, succeed, and we stop asking for money? Well, when the pinch comes, we go do something that pays. And another dissenting voice is silenced. At remarkably little cost to the left. Just some trolls who probably work for cheap, and the Marxist rats in the head of the right wingers planted there sixty years ago, in elementary school.

Look, I get it, okay? Money is tight for everyone these days. The only reason I’m not crying in the grocery checkout line, which happened often during the summer of recovery years is that well, the boys are out. And the blog by and large funds. And indie pays better than trad. And–

Money is still tight for everyone right now, even those of us who are a little more than okay. As I confessed on the post on Monday, I am having to husband our resources. We have a budget for charity, and over the last 3 years it’s grown to be more than our eating out budget (which is at any rate laughable. We’re really cheap dates, unless it’s someone’s birthday) it’s grown to be more than our vacation budget. Heck, it’s more than our grocery budget. That all said, all of those are tiny. So, it’s not only not infinite, it’s not huge. It used to get hit with a GSG or a gofundme by someone in need…. once a month? so it would all go to one person. Now I get three or four dire-needs a month. And we don’t have much room in the budget. So I’m giving less to each person. I’m sure you’re doing the same.

Plus fixed income people, which the original poster is, well… yeah. Groceries are horrendous, and getting anyone to fix the gutters/paint the wall has become prohibitive.

So, they might not give where before they would have. And that’s fine. When a lot of you said “Sarah, I’d give but–” What did I tell you? “First, don’t hurt yourself.” If the time comes I can’t afford to do this, I’ll cut back to two or three days a week. Regular. And do something else, the rest of the time.

I’ve never held it against anyone for not giving. And in fact, when some of you ran aground, I offered to give them free subscriptions to the serialization or the others (Yes, chapters. Yes, they’re coming) and have them stop paying. A bunch of you who comment here know this. And some of you whose finances I know, I yelled at for subscribing, and you got very insulted “Hey, my money. I want to.” Which…. they’re right, you know?

And I keep books on KU because I know some of you, it’s the only way you can read. Because idiots are hitting the economy with a hammer.

And I give free advice on writing on Madgeniusclub, which heaven help me, doesn’t pull its weight in publicity. And yeah, I intend to do more workshops and stuff. Let me get myself in gear.

And if any of you regulars want my books and can’t afford them, ping me. I’ll send them. (Ebook. Look, some cases I’ve sent paper copies, but the problem isn’t even the expense, though it’s expensive. It’s that I’m scatty. It’s easier to forget.)

I do the charity I can outside giving money, too. Not because I must, or owe it, but because I’m a decent human being who’s needed help and had you all come to the rescue more than once. It’s called paying it forward.

I also get “subscription creep”. I subscribe to three blogs because I love the content. I subscribe to two others because they need encouragement. That’s a lot of money per year. And I’m careful. It’s easy to spend much more and not notice. (I do annual, too. Because it’s easier to reconsider every December.)

I get it, okay? Time and money are both tight, and the world in general has its hand out. And if you don’t want to give/can’t give/are sick and tired of subsidizing blogs? No one thinks you’re a horrible human being. It’s your prerogative. Heck, most of us won’t even know.

But saying you’ll never read someone because he dared — dared! — ask for money for a service you admit you used for years? That’s staggeringly rude. And stupid. And probably evil, since it’s all based on envy of his PERCEIVED lifestyle.

You’re aiding the leftists to demoralize and demonetize the right. And you’re shocked and surprised when I wait for you behind the bike sheds and pounce. Because you didn’t think any of this through. You didn’t think anything through beyond “being nice” (what they used to imprison us during Covidiocy) and “he’s taking money from the mouths of–“

Is asking on Giving Tuesday crass? Well, it might be, if it weren’t a UN instituted thing. But even then, please note we pile on these occasions, not because we’re crass or brazen, but because we’re used to people thinking our work should be free. And we’re embarrassed as heck to ask. So we try to pile on some public thing, and smile, and try to slide it through.

But being paid for your work shouldn’t be means tested. There are things in the Bible about paying the laborer. There are things in the Bible about not binding the mouth of the kine that tread the grain.

There isn’t, that I know, anything in the Bible that says “You should not buy into Marxist arguments and neatly demonetize the people on your side, doing work for which they are often penalized in their careers” (No? FIGHT ME. I can tell you times, and not just for me.) “For which their families are penalized. For which they are often, yes, even now, even here, at risk of various sorts.”

That is because the Bible didn’t, as such, deal with the online world of blogs on the right and the finer line between “of course I’m asking, but you’re not obligated to give.” And even the Almighty probably scratches His head at the right’s cult of never asking for money, even if you’ve done the work, let alone the right’s cult of “POOR but honest.” (Ah, don’t jump me! I know He’s omniscient.)

The point of this overlong blog: Not jumping the original poster. She’s probably already blocked me on twitter, convinced I’m being mean and will probably never see this, but listen, if I wanted to jump her, I’d give you a link.

I don’t. She’s a good person. She’s simply not thinking. And she let her baser instincts take over. Which heaven knows, all of us do now and then. Because asking for money used to be only for beggars. The others? They negotiated price up front.

It’s not like that. Not in the online world. I mean, it can be, but then no one will stumble on this blog by accident and start thinking. I’d prefer not going paid-only. And I know for a fact Glenn also doesn’t want to do that.

So people’s heads get stuck in “if you’re asking, it must be for need.” But ah…. there’s no other way to get paid for this work, in this model.

Note we don’t shake people down for money. We don’t say pay or else. Yeah, yeah, if you don’t pay the thing might/will eventually go away. But that’s not a threat. That’s life and economics, and hey, it is what it is.

And the model has give, so we don’t need people to hurt themselves to keep going.

But don’t take offense because the worker expects to be paid. And don’t call people greedy who work above the required to survive, and expect to be paid for that too.

Don’t demonetize your own side to be a “nice” person.

We already know the left is trying to shut us down. Trust me, they don’t need your help.

251 thoughts on “Working for Money”

  1. It all goes back to the first murder in the Bible, Cain killing Able. Able gave a better offering to God than Cain. Cain should have upped his game and worked harder. But instead he killed his brother. All marxism is a celebration of Cain – instead of rewarding hard work the system seeks to punish and kill Able. People who complain about asking for compensation are leeches and marxists!

    Liked by 1 person

  2. This sort of creative work is only different from mowing the lawn in that it can be nearly infinitely replicated for almost nothing. But that doesn’t mean the work didn’t happen.

    And that’s a large part of why the donation model seems to work fairly well for it, in that people who can back it can and those who can’t still get the benefit. In a way it is the ultimate free market method.

    Liked by 2 people

      1. The Koch Brothers stand against the left (or at least doesn’t stand in perfect lockstep with them), so they therefore must be destroyed.

        Remember: it’s only wrong when the Right does it. Doesn’t matter what It is, It is still wrong.

        Liked by 1 person

              2. Her proposed government controls on speech are sufficient to write her off. A tool, witting or not, of the left and the tech censors.

                Liked by 1 person

                1. OH HELL NO!

                  ‘Government controls on free speech’ are not only un-American, they are anti-American. Nikki Haley can go live in a communist shithole somewhere else, not turn the U.S. into one.

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      2. That said, it is impressive just how quickly they can shovel it into money furnaces.

        It’s likely a measure of just how much ruin there is in this nation that they haven’t managed to burn their own house down yet.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. The Koch brothers aren’t conservative. They back many conservative issues, but they also back things the right wouldn’t touch with a 10′ pole.

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          2. Wasn’t what I said. Maybe you should read what I wrote. I wrote that they support causes that conservatives wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole. If you think that this means “semi-conservative”, then I don’t know what to say.

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              1. So why did you post that reply to my comment pointing out that we need to be cautious about the Koch brothers because they’re not really conservative?

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                1. Yeah, okay, it should go under Sarah’s post two levels up. Leftroids are still willing to cozy up to Nazi collaborators and child molesters if they chant the correct ‘Progressive’ slogans.

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                  1. That’s because they know, regardless of what they say publicly, that there’s essentially no difference between the “left” and what they call the “right”; both are authoritarian collectivist regimes. Intra-family fights are almost always the most vicious, as seen in WWII WRT the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.

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  3. To be completely honest, the entire schema we now have (Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday) is invented because apparently we simply cannot “shop” anymore. Giving Tuesday, I would argue, was presented as the sop to wild-eyed commercialism the rest of the days.

    That said, you do hit at the fundamental point: people should be paid for their work, be it by actual pay or donations or subscriptions or carrier pigeon. We have gotten fairly sloppy about this as a society because we live in such an abundance of everything, including information and entertainment. In a way, we have always “funded” such things (there is no free lunch) as our dollars went to businesses and corporations that bought advertisements that paid for them. If it is free, we were (and are) the product; we pay by spending our money with those businesses and having our data collected as we happily glaze over and type in “What is my favorite fruit”.

    The relatively recent practice of direct funding – be it subscription, donations, project-based funding – is both interesting to me and empowering. I can put my dollars (or currency of your choice) directly in the hands of those who benefit from it most. I can consciously support that which interests me or I believe in. And as I think we are seeing over time, it enables the customer’s voice to become more powerful; for example, no longer can a studio or publisher take for granted a project will succeed because of the names of those involved or the studios. People are more and more happy to turn away and fund the things they believe in.

    Most creatives will always create, even if there is not some kind of remuneration. But is sure the heck makes sure it can continue.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. When I lived in Japan I had no means of paying anyone here in the US for anything. I was hamstrung by my inability to get a Japanese credit card (they just don’t do credit there like they do here) and my meager income was supporting all four–no, there ended up being five of us in the end before we moved back. So I read a lot of free stuff and I enabled ads over on Instapundit as a sort of way to give a little bit. But things are much better for us now (although I certainly would not use the word “wealthy” to describe us) and I give where I can, but I’m a little choosy about it (most of that is the subscription creep you mentioned). I subscribed to one when he moved from his free blog to Substack (and he was very clear about being reluctant to ask for our money but I find his writing compelling beyond what he asks for, and the group of mostly other dudes commenting there is just fantastic). I subscribed to a cartoonist who they tried to cancel a few years back and demonetized and deplatformed again just last year (although his recent Gaza storyline had me rethinking that). And you. I subscribed to your Substack and I’m not upset about the chapters at all. You’ll get them done when you get them done, no problem. I see part of paying for the subscription as sort of subsidizing your work here. If it’s better for you that I donate to this site directly I will do that as well, whatever lines your pockets a little more.

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  5. “Was it silly of Glenn tying his request to Giving Tuesday?” YES.

    Glenn’s got a good paying steady job. Folks like Sarah and Kim Du Toit, not so much. So Glenn didn’t make the cut at my house.

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      1. Precisely. But he shouldn’t be shamed for mentioning it.
        And kindly remember a lot of his readers are billionaires. I know. They send me emails. (But not million dollar donations, the ratfinks. ;) )

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    2. That’s your decision. BUT hating him for it is not sane. His job doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is “Do you value his work?”
      (Your second paragraph is “resources are limited. So I chose. Yeah, we all do.)

      Liked by 1 person

      2. Doing a fundraiser on Giving Tuesday WAS silly. Ill-advised, if you prefer. (Especially if it was presented as “It’s Giving Tuesday! Give us…” but I don’t know if that’s the case.) It invited unnecessary blowback, and Instapundit isn’t a charity (neither are the UN’s darlings, but we’ll leave that aside for now).

        The presentation of the request is a legitimate factor in deciding who one’s money goes to, as is an assessment of how much they need the funds. If it’s a “how dare he even ask” thing, that’s different…but that’s not how I read the comment.

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        1. I will be blunt. Until this year I’d never heard of it and I’m not exactly disconnected from the world of ‘give us money!’. Yet suddenly it is a magical sacred cow that has people rushing to fainting couches screaming about charity?

          Yes, I know it was formally started in 2012. I looked it up when people started screaming. as far as I can tell it hasn’t been big except MAYBE the last two years, maybe (I can find old CyberMonday, Black Friday, and Small Bussiness Saturday ads relatively easily. Giving Tuesday? Bupkis). Yet now it’s worth screaming over? I’m highly suspicious of this ‘Suddenly’. Especially since it seems mostly to be used to pillory people rather than actually support charities.

          Liked by 1 person

          2. I hadn’t heard of it till this year. And I DONATE. Heck, our church never mentioned it, and they do, you know? They’d have said “for giving Tuesday, consider.” But nope….

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            1. I’m on the e-mail lists for the places that do the “give money to sponsor kids over seas” and they never said anything either. Nor did any of the other charities I whose mailing lists I wound up on… even the really annoying ones!

              Liked by 1 person

              2. To my viewpoint it’s been All Over The Place this year, and presented as “Of course you know it’s GIVING!!! TUESDAY!!!…” in the equivalent of the old drag race spots voice (“Sunday! Sunday!!! SUNDAY!!!!!”)

                I have a vague recollection of a couple emails last year mentioning it as Black Friday/Cyber Monday follow-ups, but nothing like this year.

                Smells really coordinated.

                Liked by 2 people

          3. I’ve been aware of it–promoted in an explicitly “after all this consumption, how about improving things for others?” manner, EXPLICITLY including doing something nice for folks to show your appreciation. Might be an Iowa area thing– and this year I also got several emails saying variations on “this isn’t a fund raising letter, cute joke about how you have a million of them for today, thank you for supporting us in the past.”

            The cutest one was Legal Insurrection which sent an email headlined YOU’RE WELCOME and then went into the cute little spiel.

            Liked by 1 person

              1. My local radio show was suggesting things you could do for “giving Tuesday” as part of their “nice happy holiday patter” stuff! I even saw someone suggest folks give a review for Giving Tuesday, to help out authors! (discussion was if authors were more “small business Saturday” or “cyber Monday” associated)

                The various Prager associated stuff went a little nuts, but I think that’s partly because we’re on more than one email list for them…. (Old radio streaming log-in, blogging link, and the Prager U email.)

                Liked by 1 person

              1. :thumbs up:

                It would be really interesting to figure out what the vector of popularity is, because oddly enough the oldest email I could find was from a Catholic group doing a year-round Giving Tuesday type effort, similar to the Fifth Friday devotions, in early 2020. Then nothing until about two weeks before this year’s Thanksgiving.

                Liked by 1 person

                2. Indeed, and that’s really sudden for the strength of the reaction. It would also be interesting to crosscorrelate by platform. I’ve mostly seen it on Twitter, are the reactions similar across the spectrum of the internet? Are there places it has grown faster and it suddenly jumped platforms?

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          4. Maybe because I was in higher ed at the time, I heard of it several years ago, probably when it was new. It’s the type of bandwagon that makes universities see dollar signs.

            I’ve heard it mentioned here and there several times since; never paid much attention to it, didn’t even know which Tuesday it’s supposed to be. But if it’s the Tuesday following Cyber Monday, it makes sense as an opportunity for “progressives” to expiate the capitalist sins they committed over the post-Thanksgiving weekend with a conveniently timed virtue display.

            Personally, I don’t think it deserves any respect at all as an occasion. It’s just a potential landmine that any enterprise ought to be aware of if they’re going to be asking for money.

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            1. Apparently ALL bloggers on the right were doing this, so you know…. it was a “fund the right” thing, not “give in need.” And possibly a bit happy to take money off the left.
              I’m so “plugged in” I didn’t notice.

              Like

        2. “I’m not reading him again” was a “how dare he even ask.”
          But giving Tuesday, really? I figured it was along the lines of when I went “Hey, feb 29 is blog tipping day.” It’s a silly way to remind you the button is RIGHT THERE.

          Like

          1. I’m with you on the subject of the post. Regarding Texan’s comment, I figure if the timing of the request set his teeth on edge and therefore Instapundit didn’t make the cut of “people I’m willing to pay,” that’s fair; didn’t seem to me he was on the “how dare he ask at all” train.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. Not “Just no.”, but “Oh HELL no!!!”; ome of the few things where shouting is justified.

              Maybe followed by racking the slide on the 870.

              Like

  6. And partly because I’m even more terrified that people in worse shape than I are going to hurt themselves trying to give me money.

    Which they will do, if they think there’s dire need. Time, tools, food, stuff, and yes, money.

    So it is wise to fundraise as you do. No apologies, and “this is to keep the lights on with the current output”, rather than “this is to feed my chilluns.”

    It’s why TiaT is on indefinite hiatus: My writer and I are both retraining in new fields while working part-time jobs at the same time, and well… Unpacking. Still. And repairing.

    Getting the wires crossed legitimately raises hackles because so many on team perverse, fraudulent, and ugly abuse it. Think Wikipedia, which is now a skin suit and begging harder than ever.

    So Author gets Paid is meet and right. And asking for honest charity, ditto. We have to ‘splain harder to keep up, is all.

    Maybe that could be a meme. Or a comic 😋

    Like

  7. Just thinking….
    Black Friday is part marketing ploy, part joke. People took (or were given) Friday off, and used it for Christmas shopping, while stores set up sales to take advantage, or vice versa. Places like Philene’s Basement and stores where the shopping got ferocious added to the joke aspect of the marketing.
    OK, but this is a four-day weekend. Not sure how long Small Business Saturday has been a thing, but it makes sense as marketing even if it almost makes shopping at the local yarn shop or whatever an act of charity. We probably ought to give thanks the marketers skipped to Cyber Monday instead of trying to make Cyber Sunday a thing.
    But Giving Tuesday….that’s purely and simply marketing. Whether it’s ongoing stupidity or deliberate, the overall effect is to drag the holiday from, “giving thanks,” to, “shop and give us your money.” Which would certainly be in character for the UN…

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Black Friday was traditionally the day that most stores went “into the black” for the year, when all their expenses were paid and anything beyond that point was gravy. In a sense.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Makes sense. I worked in a tax office, where, if all went well, anything after April 15th was gravy. (Grin).

        Like

    2. Cyber Monday became a thing because in the early days of the Internet, lots of people didn’t have Internet at home and did their online shopping when they got back to work on the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday.

      I had never heard of “Giving Tuesday” before. It sounds like an attempt to shame people into giving to charities after the so-called “rampant consumerism” of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

      That said, no shame to anyone who asks to be paid for their effort, no matter what form the effort or the payment takes.

      Like

      1. I’m with a few others. The sudden onset “Giving Tuesday!!!” and “How dare anyone else ask for funds on this day!!” raised my eyebrows as well. All the locals do their “matching grant – please help” stuff the week of Thanksgiving.

        Like

    3. And once BF was established it became a schelling point for everyone who either wanted deals or wanted to offer deals.

      Enter the Internet, stage left

      The internet changed this in two ways: it makes finding stuff — including sales — easier. And it smashed flat a lot of margins which were held up by local supply constraints. So now the BF deals aren’t so great because there isn’t as much margin to cut, and it is easier for sellers to compete on “hey our deals start the week before!”.

      Liked by 1 person

  8. I view this as kind of like our local pet rescue– which is 90% “the people who couldn’t NOT take in an abandoned cat after the lake people went home tried to get lost animals back to their families and defray the costs of doing what they think needs to be done.”

    I happen to think that’s a good use of resources, so I drop some money in the kitty [heh, heh] when I think of it.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. What is interesting is that the people who say “you don’t need the money”, generally don’t have an issue with the government printing TRILLIONS of dollars because they NEED them.

    We are now in the runaway inflation endgame and the idiot pedophile is making money printer go brrrrrr. That is worse than any “hey they’re asking for money they don’t need” could ever possibly be.

    So this is all small potatoes compared to the absolute financial beating and raping our government is currently doing. This is the biggest no you don’t deserve the money in all of human history and they’re spitting in our faces and shredding the value of all of our hard worked for money. God damn them.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. I said we’re in the runaway inflation endgame, it’s not immediate and will take some time, but we are very close or past the point of no return. If Demoncrats win 2024, we will be doomed to that future with the only way out being through. They’ve borrowed $30 billion PER DAY since the “debt ceiling” was “raised”(read vaporized) it’s getting worse FAST.

        Liked by 1 person

  10. I can afford what I give to ATH, but haven’t donated to anybody else. I should do some donations. Didn’t realize anything about Giving Tuesday (even that it existed, until Glenn mentioned it) much less that it was UN generated.

    Salvation Army lost out when they went woke. I know where that money can go to now…

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    1. I also had no idea about Giving Tuesday. I usually give when asked, not on a holy day of obligation, if that makes sense. Sorry, when asked, an it’s someone I know/deem not utterly stupid.
      And thanks to the person below for reminding me I meant to send money to Kim. When you have to do it by check, I tend to forget. Executive dysfunction. I wish he’d open a substack, even if all he does is echo some of the long posts. Easier to donate that way, by subscribing.

      Like

    2. The only reason why I still drop a few dollars in the kettle when it’s easy, is because my brother finally got sober after flunking out of several other programs and they were his last chance. I will give thanks forever that they were there when he needed it…

      Liked by 1 person

      2. I used to love what the SA did. The one in San Jose, CA did marvelous work, and I’d donate stuff (including the old Ranger–it became some painter’s work machine).

        We gave money for one of the hurricanes (Houston’s, if memory serves). Their response was to start an endless chain of begging letters, to the point where it felt that our donation was being used for postage to get more money from us. We were still giving at the kettle, but no more checks.

        After the woke stuff came out, we dropped the kettle. The first Christmas season after that, the bell ringers were scarce, but they’ve returned. Still, I figure out charity money can go to causes that aren’t woke. We donate reasonable quantities of rice, beans and peanut butter every month to the Gospel Mission, and if our garden cooperates, fresh produce. (Waggles hand.)

        They were a great organization, and might become one again. Not now, alas.

        Like

            1. Hmmm.

              Here dog! Nice doomdog! Here’s your apocabiscut!
              (Fake throw)
              (Fake throw)
              (Aircannon launch suborbital)
              Go!

              Now, perhaps you get some peace.

              Liked by 1 person

                  1. I could have used “phasers on twinkle” zorch!, but “phantom dog chasing intercontinental ball” seemed funnier.

                    Like

                    3. “Phaser on Twinkle” is from a decades ago RPG in which I participated. It was the “disintigrate” settign, where the target lights up in a glowie/twinkling mass, then fades away.

                      Came from a really weird player, wanting to say something really bad-ass in a fight, saying “Set the damn phasers to ‘twinkle’ and fire again!”

                      Hard for a GameMaster to maintain dramatic tension when almost the whole party is rolling on the furniture giggling….

                      Like

  12. Sadly, this “he doesn’t need the money” is related (in my mind) to “they’re a big corporation, so it’s OK to steal from them”.

    Thus, in too many Blue Cities, the stores are closing because “shop-lifting” is allowed by the Blue Cities. :mad:

    And of course, the big corporations are “evil for doing so”.

    Liked by 1 person

        1. And after policies that caused grocers to close stores, the politicians whine about “food deserts”.

          Chicago talked about “government run grocery stores”.

          Don’t know if it happened or if it did, how well it worked.

          Liked by 1 person

              1. Chuckle Chuckle

                Haven’t read any recent articles about them “blaming the Right” but the “problem” is that border states who didn’t want the illegals are sending them to the “sanctuary cities” that claimed that they wanted the illegals. :lol:

                Liked by 1 person

            2. Found a recent Chicago Tribune article (paywalled) that seems to say that they are still “looking into it” but apparently they are finding out that it’s “harder than they thought”.

              Liked by 1 person

          2. Drak it is being run by the City of Chicago. That right there tells you it hasn’t got a paper dog in hell’s chance of success. These folks will make GUM and similar Soviet Era stores look like they are Krogers. As noted above running a grocery store is hard. Very low margins, Lots of waste due to things expiring short shelf lives and fickle consumers. Chicago’s government couldn’t organize an orgy in a brothel.

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            1. Haven’t I read somewhere that a Nevada ran brothel went bankrupt? (Taken over because of taxes, I think.)

              President Reagan was correct the:

              The scariest 8 words are “I’m from the government. I’m here to help.”
              …………….

              Liked by 1 person

              1. And the FICUS Education secretary got it precisely wrong. He never heard (or didn’t listen to) “The scariest 8 words are”.

                Mark Twain thought school boards were much worse than idiots. I’d love to contemplate a Twainish take on FICUS and company.

                Liked by 1 person

              3. It was taxes. The IRS seized it for unpaid payroll and income taxes (including employee withholding).

                The usual thing is to try to immediately sell the asset, rather than try to run it but there were either no bids or very low ones.

                So the Treasury tried to run it themselves and lost money at it – for three years if I remember correctly.

                Liked by 1 person

                1. That’s the way I read it. So now it was official: The government can’t run even a brothel at a profit. :twisted:

                  Like

              4. The actual case was the famous Mustang Ranch, twice taken for rather well supported reasons, and the one time the trustee applied for permission to run it the judge denied it, and the second time the BLM wanted to use it to promote wild horses and again it got denied (because they didn’t plan enough toilets).

                So, technically they couldn’t make money running a brothel that the prior owner couldn’t, either, but because a judge said “no” to trying.

                https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1999/10/07/wild-times-may-not-be-over-at-mustang-ranch/5173efe6-fcb1-4bcc-b5ce-3f5bbad50eee/

                I seem to remember it was actually bought by the guy that lost it the first time, with a bunch of straw purchases, which is where the fraud came in.

                Like

          3. It was discussed too recently for something to have been set up yet.

            Though IIRC it was just thrown out as a possibility at the time, and not settled on as a course of action.

            Like

        2. But but but…. they have all that food. it’s toddler logic.
          Heaven help me, in the OP there’s someone now saying she paid for PJM VP for YEARS so you know, we shouldn’t tell her when she’s being Marxist.
          Look first, PJM doesn’t pay Glenn. It’s not like that. BUT second, presumably you paid VIP to read the articles. So, unless you stopped enjoying the articles, what sense “that’s over now” does that make.
          That it’s over something that SOMEONE ELSE who is not paid by them said is even more hilarious. If you like dark humor.
          These people refuse to examine the rats in their heads.

          Like

    2. Did they earn the money? That is what the collectivtwits want to erase.

      No obligation to earn your way. Just demand a need and Presto! The State loots and transfers on your behalf.

      How Dare You Speak of Earning When Folks Are In Need!

      Yeah. Right. F right off goober. Bet I charity more than you. PS it ain’t charity to demand someone else do something.

      Liked by 1 person

  13. Paying for goods/services (writing for example) makes sense to me just as paying for the guy to change the oil on the car. With that, I also try to look beyond it a bit and figure how to make it “better” when I do it. Example – I found a few authors (independent types) who had books on KU that I could read for “free” but I will instead spend the three, six or whatever bucks and buy it thus giving the author a bit back. Here and there I will find someone doing a fund raising to support their efforts and I’ll kick a few dollars in to help with something/someone I think is a good thing. If they needed it, great and if not, it’s extra for them to work with which is a win-win.

    The delightful Mrs. and I looked at some giving and decided to give a fixed monthly amount to a couple of major organizations. We did this after looking hard at the finances, goals and actual use they put the money to. It may not seem like much but twenty bucks here, ten there can add up over time and is always welcome. As for Giving Tuesday – eh, who cares? I’ll give when giving is needed and I can do so.

    Each month has a bit of flux in it for me and I can sometimes come up with some “extra” dollars and this gives me the chance to put it someplace worth while. I’ll also fess up that sometimes that extra dab goes to a “want” item for myself – yay, present for me!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I have a two-year-at-a-time KU subscription, because that is the only way I can afford to read 360+ books a year. I do pick up free or 99¢ books occasionally, but I always check and if the title is on KU, I will borrow it instead. Because for any book over 200 or so pages the author will earn more than 99¢ from KU (if the per-page-read payout is still ~1/2¢ as it used to be). And any return from KU beats the $0 return from royalties on a free book.

      For this reason, I want to thank ALL of you here who publish on KU, because otherwise I simply could not afford to read your work, no matter how intriguing your promos are. (Tho I confess I have actually bought several of Sarah’s books when I could. Because reasons.)

      Liked by 1 person

  15. This makes me rethink my response to “Donate so we can keep <> free”. Unmentioned is the “free for people who don’t donate”. I tend to avoid donating in that situation, just as I don’t respond well to “you must choose our product right now, or the price will go up”.

    With respect to donations, if it is something that I want others to have access to, I will now try to chip in what I can.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It is literally “Donate, so I don’t have to go paid.” I’ll be blunt and up front: I wouldn’t. NOT WITH THE BLOG. Because that would destroy this community, and I love this community.
      This is why, if I get in real trouble (those in tech know how precarious my husband’s – very good – job is. ALL of tech is precarious right now) I’ll cut to three days a week, maybe get co-bloggers in, but not shutter. (The idea was for sons to pick up, but it would destroy them. Maybe the DILs someday)
      BUT for other people that is the option.

      Like

  16. during my second marriage (ok I’m not good at marriage, so sue me, I try) the sister in law complained to my (ex)wife that we made too much money (me being an overpaid software guy on Wall Street) and should pay more tax … my (ex)wife pointed out that we paid more in taxes that year than her sister made in that year … the Oh ??? in response was priceless …

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Aunt complained how much they paid in taxes between state, federal, the 7% employer SS portions, and all the other little employee payroll taxes. Not going to lie. It was a lot. It was still something like 17% (remember, state, and Oregon is a flat 9%, or was then) of their income. It was also over triple our combined income. I was in software, salary. Hubby timber, salary not exempt. Note, at the time we were not triple digits gross income. (We’ve hit triple digit gross income, 7 years, and only net 4 years, in the 45 years we’ve been married.) Neither hubby or I have ever had any issues with any legal means Aunt & Uncle, President Trump, or anyone else, with a business, or high household income, use to limit what taxes are gouged out of their earnings.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. “What’s sales tax?” She blinks innocently grins.

          Um. We’re in Oregon. There is no stinking sales tax. (So were aunt and Uncle. Grants Pass.)

          Except the new “privilege tax” on new vehicles. It is a percentage. It is a stinking sales tax. Gas tax for road maintenance, which is fixed amounts.

          Liked by 1 person

    2. Once upon a time, a (self-broke) relative said “!Socialism is the only answer!!”

      “Must have been a pretty stupid quetion, then.”

      Holidays were kinda awkward for a while…

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Well, technically it could have been “What garbage tier political pseudo ideology has murdered hundreds of millions, yet maleducated idiots today still claim it has ‘never been tried’?”

        Liked by 1 person

  17. A difference between truly libertarian/right thinking and the leftoids/marxfestation thought: The Leftoid places that say “Pay us what you, wish/think about donating” tend to go under quickly. I listen to a no ads music stream and he usually only mentions donations or subscriptions once a year, though the “Listener Supported” is part of the tagline in Bumpers often enough. The obviou leftoids who do donate will often act like he must listen to them (fun times in comments on Amboy Dukes and Ted Nugent got so bad he had a “What can you say about Ted? How about nothing?” bumper for a while., Note he didn’t stop playing the song because he likes the song, it’s his station and he gets to play what he wants) I don’t demand he stop playing Friante or (Dixie)Chicks, I skip them. Those of us not of the leftoid slant tend to be far more slack, and those that are not, act like false-flags and trolls.

    Like

    2. There’s another aspect to this. On YT, you can donate during livestreams and the content providers will often answer questions more often (or at all) if you make a donation. Not requested, but it sets up an expectation of getting something for the donation. Sometimes I see people get angry who donated but didn’t have their question answered/donation acknowledged, or if the content creator didn’t give them the answer they wanted.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. And it’s always the streams with so many people the chat is nigh impossible to keep up with, and the ranters wait until there is 3 minutes left in the planned timeframe for the stream. I’ve also seen, on Charismatic Voice, folks think her premiers are a live reaction and want her to answer some question or point something they think she missed in the vid.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. There are catch-up streams these days, which are surprisingly popular for something that is basically listening to a person reading out other people’s chat comments and amount of gift! But sometimes boring is good.

          Liked by 1 person

  18. When I can give, I give generously, when I can’t it tends to be smaller and I generally feel awful about myself if I can’t give something. I have been the receiver of generosity in the past and so when I am in the position of the generous, I do what I can. Partly this is because I’m am easy mark with a soft heart. Partly, this is because I want the cycle to continue, just in case I’m in the needy column again some day.

    Anyone who labors, be it with words, with hands, or with mind, deserves some sort of recompense. Despising them for asking for that recompense says more about you than it does about them.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Don’t feel awful because you can’t give. For years we just couldn’t. … we still did sometimes, but it was tiny and put us in hardship, so it had to be super-important.
      Don’t feel bad.

      Like

    2. I’m crap at giving. Every now and then I take a chance on someone that needs a car repair- fast- or are about to get behind on bills, or just need a week’s groceries or something.

      Rarely get paid back. Eh. NBD. I give to charities anonymously. Sometimes I snag a bill for someone in line, or at the gas station or something. That’s just what one does, when one can.

      It ain’t something that everyone should do. Not even some of the people all the time. I hate it when I can’t help, but sometimes not helping is best. It ain’t help to enable the crackhead to get his next fix, even if he tells you its for formula for his kid.

      Way I was taught was simple.

      You fix your own boat before you go out searching for survivors in need of help.

      Get yourself solid and stable in your own boat. Paddle like the devil if you got to. But have a sound and solid hull- a positive balance at the bank and a steady flow of income.

      Then set aside a bit for emergencies. A month’s expenses. Not just bills. Expenses. Gotta eat, too.

      Once you have a good base and you’re not worried about surprise expenses- a missed bill, a car repair, a roof leak or a broke toilet- then you can set aside a bit for giving.

      Don’t go out in a leaky boat. Get yourself fixed up first. All overextending does is add one more would-be-rescuer-cum-rescue-needful. There’s no shame in setting your own boat aright first. No matter how long it takes.

      Ain’t none of us perfect. We try and fail all the time. But it’s always a blessing when I see someone lift themselves out of the struggle into stability. That, I have great respect for.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. The “how much did you deposit today?” question when hubby decided that we needed to help his sister so she didn’t have to go to the parents again. (Yes, she needed the money for school cloths for the two kids. No, it was not her fault she was short, nor was she on drugs or alcohol. Supposedly for a “loan”. HaHaHaHaHeHeHeHe Also bought her soon-to-be-ex’s golf clubs to sell for her (which we paid too much for, yes on top of what we just gave her). But my initial response (as I’m writing the check) “I am working, why?”) My idea of “forced charity” might be a wee bit prejudice. Where I give. I give gladly to pay for services rendered. I may not be able to pay much. But I try. I also take advantage of anything that helps the receiver that just takes a few extra seconds on my part. Like the Sunday Promo clicks. Or triggering ResqWalk when taking a walk (I have a dog with me, but nothing in the app says you have to have a dog with you. Select your favorite animal rescue to benefit.) Or the now gone Amazon charity (Shriner Hospital), just buying things.

        Like

      2. I do not loan money as “help”. Seems like most folks resent the hell out of you for daring to want the loan repaid. What most folks want is a straight-up gift. They just are too proud to say it, so “hey can I ‘borrow’ some money for….”. Soem even told me off for daring to be asking for it back while “wealthy”. “You said ‘borrow’.” “Yeah well you dont need it. I do.”

        So rather than dancing that idiot waltz, I just decide if giving money is apropriate. Are they hard working folk who just had some misfortune eat their shorts? Here. Go fix the whazzit. Merry Early Christmas. Are they serial mooches who manufacture their dire situation? Got nuthin.

        Is it my relative who was chainsmoking and paying $300+ a month for cable, B-ing and moaning about being “poor” in a home 5x the size of my little place? With three cars and a collection of “collectable” stuff that overran the place?

        No. And wow was I and the universe resented.

        We really need to work on our definition of “poverty” eh?

        Later, that person called me to say they had quit smoking for over 6 months, turned the cable off, unsubrscribed from the doohicky collectable club, etc. I later got generous. But also was along the lines of “The transmission failed? Have the mechaninc call me with the bill.” So here was a check on shenanagains. They got their s(tuff) together and gee whiz, things got better. Magic.

        Sometimes, you are not helping when you “help”. The drug treatment folks call it “enabling” for a reason.

        Liked by 1 person

        2. The problem with the doo-hickey of the month club is you can’t even sell them for what you paid after.
          How we know: When MIL went demented, and before people realized it, she subscribed to everything that came up on the TV she watched constantly.
          After she was moved to a home, husband was the last to go through the house for “sentimental” stuff. He found boxes of “collectible” ornaments stashed in a closet. He asked me to check. Well, he was the last. i don’t know if other “collectibles” were worth it, but those were worthless. (I’ll note everything he left went to garage sale). So, we kept the “baby animals” Ornaments, because they’re cute. They’re in basement. If there are ever grandkids, we intend to make a little “kid tree” that the kids get to put ornaments on, and we’ll tell little stories and name each ornament.
          Stop staring at me. It’s a nice dream.
          BUT money-worth it it’s not.

          Like

          1. Boxes and boxes of unopened pet vitamins. Not human consumable. Auto charged subscription. Finally quit showing up when the credit cards were canceled after grandparents went into hospice and assisted living (for the short time they were there). Do not get me started.

            Liked by 1 person

              1. Grandma was diagnosed with “social dementia”. Unless one looked deeply, which extended to financial matters, the dementia wasn’t noticeable. Grandpa was deaf and blind as a bat (between cataracts and glaucoma), he had no clue what was happening. No one was minding the store. Yet grandparents resident county social services would not let mom and her siblings (would have been mom) step in. Elderly abuse, don’t you know (never mind that by the time all this hit, mom herself was 70). (Which was good/bad. Good because mom and siblings couldn’t be held accountable for what grandparents did financially, despite them knowledgeable about the dementia. Bad because creditors got royally screwed, OTOH creditors deserved it. Really, really, did.)

                Liked by 1 person

  19. Well shucks… If something is not worth five or ten bucks why are you bothering to read it? Doesn’t your time have any value to you? I set my books on Amazon at $4.99. I figure that is a fancy coffee or a very cheap lunch. I haven’t increased the prices in TEN YEARS. I’ve told my readers on a number of occasions that if anyone was sick/disabled/out of work etc, etc. I’d gladly send them something free. You know how many have pleaded poverty and taken me up on it? Zero/zip/nada.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. $7 is a VERY cheap lunch.

        When I moved here – just over two years ago – dining-out prices were half Denver’s. They may still be, but they’ve now hit what Denver was, then.

        (and I still don’t have a deck; spring, hopefully)

        Liked by 1 person

    2. I get Bookbud. I’ve gotten a number of first book of series for free to $1.99 then went and bought the entire series. Rogue Angel, all 65 books (not inexpensive even epud. Still not happy I can’t continue, but $25/book in the new format, is a tad steep.) Dolbeare “Splintered”. Meyers “Chained Adept”. Riffey “Earth Reader”. Hoyt “Shifters”. Just to name a few. Of coarse I also get a number of firsts, and do not continue with the series. Not that they aren’t good. Just they aren’t “grab me, must have the rest” superb.

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  20. Sarah, don’t listen to the head rats. I get far more in value from this blog than I do from whatever I donated the last couple times (I don’t remember the amount). I do not comment often, but do read daily. Don’t fret about asking for donations at fundraising time.

    Liked by 1 person

  21. Howdy.

    11B-Mailclerk. I work for money. Mostly IT these days, but other fields remain negotiable. I am very, very good at what I do, and I prove it. I expect to be paid accordingly. I know what my life, labor, and time are worth.

    I also generally hide it, because I prefer seeing how folks treat me when they think I am without resources or power.

    There are those I support as charity. There are those I pay for value received. If I do not respect you, you get bupkis. If I do respect you, and you respect me, we can deal.

    I am not a thief, nor do I tolerate thieves. I am a professional.

    Folks have allowed nincompoops to distort and debase our language to the point some folks get seriously bent asking to get paid.

    Folks, get your heads out of Marxist asses.

    The worker is worthy of his hire. Pay for what you get from the work of others. Get paid, unashamed, for what you do.

    Charity is a virtue. Its a civilization essential thing. Throwing demanded money at some resentful lazy asshole is -not- charity. Don’t allow such to effectively thieve from those folks worthy of, and who actually benefit from, true charity. Nor let such slimeslugs divert you from the joy that can come from charity.

    Yes. You have to discern. Yes, that is work. It is also essential.

    As able, I give away a crapload of my earned income. Sometimes it’s charity. Sometimes it’s trying to make someone’s difficulty less painful. Sometimes its a gift.

    If i can possibly manage it, -none- is wasted or counter-productive.

    Having said all that, this Forum, and our Hostess provide good value. Writing is -hard- for me. I doubt I would be so generous.

    Mrs Hoyt, do -not- let manipulative bastards splash their marxshit guiltshit on you. You are a Professional Author and Artist. Worthy of you hire. Applause in greenback.

    Those marxvoidsphincters are -not-. For which they hate you and seek revenge.

    Folks -respect- and -admire- you.

    Don’t give those other bastards the satisfaction.

    Liked by 1 person

  22. If you produce something, a product or a service, that people value, then you have a moral right to expect at least an equal value in exchange for it. How much they value it determines what they are willing to pay for it. Anyone who thinks differently, is either an ignoramus, or a thief at heart. “Atlas Shrugged” is chock full of instances and people/organizations expecting something for nothing, with the government regulating the thieving and redistributing the 10% of the top for their version of the Big Guy. I’ve lost count of how many businesses Rand had go under, or the owners destroy or walk away from after the looters made it impossible for them to operate.

    Sarah, LIVE THE DREAM! Keep on being a John Galt and asking for contributions for your blogs. God, and all of us, know you put innumerable hours of effort into them. As for Ms. Twit, she’s effectively said that Glenn Reynolds has nothing of value to her; ergo, she has no reason to access his posts. But if she’s going to be OFFENDED by him asking for contributions, she just came down on the side of the looting woke.

    Like

  23. Subscription fatigue is real. Ran into it when I was getting magazines in the mail. Why would blogs or article based subscription sites be any different?

    Right now other than AccordingtoHoyt, the only subscriptions I have are the ones that primarily are paid subscriptions. I am not paying for the subscriptions. This means I get headlines and brief starting blurb, with occasionally access to an entire article. There are also free blogs I can’t access because I have ad busters set to tight parameters. (This blog is not one of them. I see Sarah’s book links.) I am good with that. AccordingtoHoyt I have contributed a couple of times, because I like what Sarah writes and I like the sense of community. I am happy and will continue to do so.

    Like

    1. Yep. I only pay some. I husband it CAREFULLY.
      Note I’m not saying you should give to everyone. I’m saying that if you like something how well the owner does is not a criterium. And that being offended because someone asks is LOONY.
      I am a free subscriber on an interesting blog, and every time I go there he goes “do you want to upgrade?” well, no. He’s not THAT interesting (most of his output is REALLY ANNOYING VIDEOS. I only like the writing, and that’s mostly free.) BUT I don’t get mad at him for asking. He does the work. He wants to bet paid. Not worth it for me, but judging by his readership, worth it for others.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I agree. I read what I can. Otherwise. Okay, not that one. The sites can ask all they want. That is what they are suppose to do.

        Like

        1. Oh, and in my case, again, you don’t have to give money,and those who can’t but would like to? When you have to buy ANYTHING from Amazon, find the last book promo and go to Amazon through there. I et a percentage of the entire session, and it doesn’t cost you anything.

          Liked by 1 person

          2. OK, just to clarify…

            If I go to Amazon through any of your promos, and then buy any book, including those not in the promo, you get the percentage? If so, cool! And I’ll start doing that. :-)

            Like

  24. “Well, because he doesn’t NEED it. So, how dare he ask?”

    Man, my eyes are rolling so hard. So many people out there, just itching for the opportunity to tell you what -you- need.

    I’ve had people tell me my truck is ridiculous. “You don’t NEED that big thing! It’s huge!” And et cetera. (I seem to attract unfiltered Karens. It’s why I don’t socialize much anymore. I can’t restrain my inner Scotsman as well as I used to.) Yeah you bet it’s huge. And really, don’t I buy the gas? How is this your problem, Karen?

    Or guns. Big favorite, “But do you think you really NEED a thing like that? What are you, nuts? You think they’re out to get you?” Yeah. Love that one.

    And my favorite, doctors. “Why do they NEED that nice office? I have to pay for that? I should get this consultation for free!” Doctors should work for free, right? This is Canada, they owe you free stuff.

    My answer is always the same. “Free country means -I- decide what I need.” If they persist, as they so often do, I ask: ” You can walk, right? Do you really need a car? How dare you burn scarce fossil fuels for mere convenience?!”

    Well, but that’s different!

    I think Elon Musk has the best comment about this, when it was mentioned in an interview that certain advertisers [coughDisneycough] were threatening to boycott Twittler over their failure to curtail free speech that [coughBobIgercough] didn’t like. “Don’t advertise! You want to blackmail me with money? F- you! Really, F- you. I hope that’s clear. Hi Bob!”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. And remember the Lightbringer, he of the three (or is it four now?) mansions, stating noone should need an income larger than $75,000.
      I knew the first time I heard his stump speech that when he said, “We must make sacrifices,” he meant “You must make sacrifices.”

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Yes, I remember that one too. When people tell me who they are and what they want, I believe them.

        Karen’s telling me she wants to be the one who decides what I need. I believe that. It may become my job to convince Karen she doesn’t want that anymore. I have some ideas. >:D

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Aside re BO manses:
        A few years ago the nice elderly lady who owned the oceanfront property on Oahu where they filmed the real “Magnum, PI” 80s TV show (not the remake with the short Hispanic fellow playing Magnum) passed away and the property was bought by a “local investor” who promptly had the place bulldozed. Disbelieving fans got to see via YT vids from drones carefully circumnavigating the property as everything was torn down.

        Some time later it turns out the “local investor” guy was a straw buyer to provide cover for a politician who was really buying it, and the real owner is… (drum roll)… Barry Sotoero, The Lightbringer, Barack Hussein Obama his own self. Barack has been photographed inspecting the new mansion being built on the lot.

        So add another one to the list: Barack tore down the Robin Masters Estate.

        Like

    2. “You are paranoid. No one is out to get you.”

      “If I seriousy thought someone was out to get me, they would likely already be dead of a stray bullet headshot.”

      “uh……..”

      (grin)

      Like

  25. My only complaint, at times, is that there are a lot fewer things that I can buy and contribute to these days.
    I’m having to carefully balance out my Patreon and Substack and a few other places so that most of my paycheck doesn’t go away (a lot of the people out there that I like are complaining that because they aren’t Tumblr-friendly or such, they’re not seeing a lot of work and AI is eating into their Safe For Work business).
    But I understand people needing to ask for help at times.
    I can even understand Glenn asking for help, as people in the marketing industry are telling me that ad rates for websites have been cratering the last year and is only going to get worse as we run into 2024.
    And I’m working for money. The trick is that your employers have to remember that they’re renting your opinion, not buying your soul.

    Liked by 1 person

  26. I noticed you have a troll or three over in the comments at Insty. There’s quite a few over there, more than I was expecting. But, it’s the internet

    Like

  28. If Disney and Bob Iger and the left are so into everything should be free, How come all these actors (Rob Meatbrain dumber than dogshit Reiner) Directors, Producers, don’t do their jobs for free? Speaking of which, why do any of them have money at all? Shouldn’t they have given it all to the poor already? I mean there are truly needy people out there other than democrat politicians that aid and abetting child trafficking so that the sick fucks like Rob Meatbrain dumber than dogshit Riener can get his freak on saturday night?
    It truly is puzzling.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. You are -so- uneducated. The self-selected aristocracy lives by different rules, you uppity peasant. Why else self-select into the aristocracy of merit by because? They have more because they are better than you. Becasue they are in the big club and you are not. Back to your toil, you base and uneducated wog. When the masters want your opinion, they will first beat it into you with their “art”. And if that doesn twork, their enforcers can apply hickory shampoos as needed.

      Sheesh.

      Like

  29. I pay for gocomics.com, and ancestry.com. The first provides me entertainment, every day, without fail For far far less then the price of a daily newspaper. With many fewer comics. And I get the choice of which of the comics I want sent to me. The second gives me lots and lots of information, and gives me a spare time hobby. Currently >25,000 related people on my tree, with most branches DNA verified. And it’s how I found a half-sister- through a DNA match -who I haven’t yet successfully contacted. And from DNA it appears my great-grandfather had at least 4 children other then my grandfather- who was an only child. At least, the only one anyone ever knew about.

    I have no clue how gocomics shares revenues with cartoonists.

    It comes down to- how much am I willing to pay- and what (or rather who) do I get for it. I’ve considered pjmedia VIP gold- $89 a year is pretty reasonable. Again, though, I don’t know how they share that with writers.

    I would pay a reasonable amount for substack- for access to all their authors. A few $5 a month individual subscriptions, and I’m way over my limit for discretionary spending. If they charged $49 a year as does pjmedia VIP- I’d jump on it. Since there’s no editing and the site basically just hosts – or so it seems- it would be fairly simple to divide the money up by using one hit per day on any author by a subscriber. Authors could continue to have a choice- paywall or free. Start free, once you gain an audience- if you do – hide behind the paywall. Or make some posts paywall, others free, as some authors do. For a start, I’d be contributing to Glenn, Sarah, Cdr Salamander, Jeff Childs, and a handful of others.

    For straight news? Let’s be honest- there’s no mainstream media site I trust. Pjmedia even has trustworthiness issues from time to time.

    BTW- I am quite willing to put up with advertising. On the side. That doesn’t jump out and cover the screen or pop up and start a video- of just appear- in front of what I was just trying to read. It seems legitimate companies are looking closely at internet advertising and seeing it doesn’t really work. But then, advertising itself has always been sort of a scam. Newspapers never made money with subscribers, and advertising revenue was good- but the real money was in classified ads. And here came Craigslist…

    Liked by 1 person

    1. For news, mostly political, Ace is pretty much where I go first. There are independents that put out pretty solid content, but for my time and dime, AoSHQ is the first choice. PJ ain’t bad, but I go there less often these days.

      Mostly because no time. After a certain and quick point, it’s cutting into writing, reading, eating, or sleep time. And one of those will go before the others, and it ain’t the first two.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. The ads over on Insty just piss me off. Not that he has ads, that’s actually fine, it’s that they are so in your face with animated gifs that are basically gross. If they weren’t so bad it would not be so bad, but I guess the worse they are the more people click? It is a puzzlement.

        I suppose that’s what happens when the bottom of the barrel for revenue is near.

        Like

      3. Advertising is magic voodoo. It works when the dark entities that govern such mystical things deem it will work and not a smidgen more often.

        Yeah, there’s psychology and whatnot behind it. Pfah. I maintain that the average American is quite a bit more stubborn and savvy or lazy and ornery than the hypothesized homo advertisi consumerous.

        Like

  30. I feel about people whining about a blogger asking for money the same way I feel about them whining about the topics of the posts not being what they deem important.

    Make your own blog, do your own research, pay your own hosting fees, and moderate your own comments if you don’t like it.

    The right has been majorly demonitized and content creators who used to be able to at least break even on expenses no longer do.

    Meanwhile, twits who have discovered Bin Laden’s diseased Letter to America and are spewing it across the web. Making bank doing it too, I’m sure.

    Liked by 1 person

  31. How about doing some cultural aikido and calling it “work equity” – everyone deserves to be paid for their honest work regardless of who they are.
    Leftists aren’t allowed to argue against “equity”, are they?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Well, if it benefits someone of whom the Leftards don’t approve:

      “That’s not REAL equity!!!! REEEEEEEEEEE!”

      Ah, for a Bangalore Suppository…

      Like

  32. As a complete aside and heads up, there are several somewhat strong Coronal Mass Ejection approaching our little blue ball and merging together, forecast to impact out magnetosphere on 01 December with enough oomph that they are naw alerting for a G3 magnetic storm – see the NOAA NWS Space Weather Prediction Center page at:

    https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/g3-strong-geomagnetic-storms-now-likely-01-dec-full-halo-cme

    If your devices (PCs, phones, pads, routers) go goofy be ready to reboot/restart. I usually have to reboot something in my tech menagerie whenever one of these that’s strong enough arrives.

    Like

  33. In the interest of Science, and to save you all from Filthy Lucre, I am willing to take all the money.

    I will make sure it receives a nice home and a Christian burial.

    And maybe a nice slice of pie.

    Liked by 1 person

  34. A niggling quibble:
    “Ex-marine” means something specific.
    It means that you were kicked out with a Bad Conduct Discharge or a Dishonorable Discharge. It isn’t something to brag about or establish bonafides with.
    It’s for someone who had the title revoked with prejudice, not someone who’s simply done using it.
    Using it, is a HUGE red flag.

    There are any number of ways of saying you served among Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children, many of them crude.
    But any appeal to expertise will likely start “I was”, “I used to be”, “I am a former“

    Like

    1. I KNOW that. I suspect he doesn’t. I said it was a persona, right?
      My two neighbors in CO were, they informed me, Marines. Even though one was a commercial pilot and the other a lawyer.
      Great guys. Nice families. Fun people.

      Like

    2. Which we pointed out when he did it, here.

      And which several of us have taken to pointing out when he has a new persona over on Insty and is ranting that Sarah is meaaaaaan to Marines.

      Liked by 1 person

  35. Honestly, I stopped reading instapundit because I couldn’t keep up with it, like a firehose of information. Well that and current events, almost all of which I can nothing about, are very depressing.
    I wish I had more money to give.

    Liked by 1 person

  36. Making this as painless for authors and readers is a niche that Substack is angling to fill IMHO. As an aspiring writer myself, I likethe model – put free stuff up until you feel confident that someone will actually chip in some cheddar for your words and you can make the posts pay-only. If you’re big enough, you do it the way Vox Day did it and make it all pay-only, sans the blog. The model worked on Soundcloud + Bandcamp for music until Soundcloud killed user-curated fan groups. I remember being tickled at making $200 in 6 months composing music – ah, the good days lol…

    The reason I forayed out into that brambles is that I fear that Substack could end up doing the same thing for writers. The temptation to try to sell popularity for exorbitant sums of money seems to be irresistible to most platforms. When putting all of your content into someone else’s computer without local backup, this is a risk. Pros and cons.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. -Always- have a regulary periodic off-plaform backup. Preferrably two, as any backup is of course on “a platform” even if that is “printed paper in my fire safe”.

      -Always- a regular periodic backup

      Liked by 1 person

    2. …until Soundcloud killed user-curated fan groups.

      “Hey, we’ve got a great thing going here and everybody loves it! Let’s fix it, and keep fixing it until everybody hates it!”

      Seems to be the mission statement of everything for the past ten years or more.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. Honestly, I don’t even think it’s that. I think it’s more “they made something that works, but I’m super-better than them, so I can make it better” but actually, they’re incompetent and incapable of admitting it.

          Liked by 1 person

      2. “If it Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It” needs to be prominently displayed in more places.

        stern look to Day Job’s accounting department

        Liked by 2 people

        2. Many of those places should be in a certain corporation in Redmond WA.

          (Further stern look at anyone who was involved in developing any op sys beyond Windows 7. Or maybe XP.)

          Like

          1. In John Ringo’s Monster Hunter trilogy he has the Seattle team in the 80s going to “Microtel,” where they use literal daemons in their software and they periodically get out of hand. They start coming through the Blue Screen of Death and eating the current crop of programmers…

            Liked by 1 person

            2. I use desktop reader, QuiteRSS, which is fairly simple, and I perhaps should change to something a bit more robust. But mostly it’s a net to catch what books go into project Gutenberg’s proofreading pipeline.

              The two web-based RSS readers I keep tabs on, and might even now set up a server for, are Tiny Tiny RSS and FreshRSS.

              Like

  37. Good post, and food for much thought; thanks!

    Just a minor nit… Re: “his “ex-marine” (sic) persona”, just my “Marine no longer on active duty” take on it, but the only ex-Marines are those who received other-than-honorable discharges; the “always a Marine” part is rescinded for them. The rest of us are as noted above. ;-)

    Like

      1. Yeah, I didn’t read the responses before commenting, or I would have seen that Luke covered the “ex-Marine” issue and your reply. Mea culpa. ;-)

        Like

        1. Meh. it bears saying. Because he then goes to insty and whines I was disrespectful to Marines and “spit on the centurion on the walls.” SERIOUSLY, he keeps repeating that. It’s mental illness, I swear. Also, I’m not an American, not arf, regardless of having been naturalized almost double the time I wasn’t and having lived here my entire adult life, with no one else who even speaks Portuguese. Nope. Impure blood or something.

          Like

          1. He (She? It?) is apparently a Leftist idiot (yeah I know; how redundant can I get?). Perhaps you should allow a couple of its posts to get through here; the bloodbath might be amusing.

            Liked by 1 person

                  1. Taking out the trash is a bothersome chore. But the alternative is living with the smelly mess. Best just be done with it and get on with the better things in life.

                    Like scribbling up fantastic worlds and amazing characters, giggling like loons with family and friends, patching up botched repairs on the house (my current mess), sleeping and eating occasionally when the body reminds you to.

                    Like

                  2. OK; bad suggestion on my part. Your house, your rules, and it sounds like you’ve had way too much exposure to this toxic…thing…already.

                    Like

    2. As I said below somewhere, I used to live between two marines, who once they figured out who I was and what I did were bizarrely protective, including running security with cameras for my house while we were away.
      They told us they were marines.
      One was a lawyer and one a commercial pilot. They had left the corps more than a decade ago, each. But, sir, they were MARINES.
      (And the competition on shooting coyotes from the bedroom windows was next level. It needed doing. The critters were a menace to the pets and children of the neighborhood. Mostly coydogs. How they chose to do it was the amusing part.)

      Like

      1. “Protective” is what Marines (and to be fair, any good troops) do, especially regarding ladies. I think it’s a combination of genetics and boot camp training… :-)

        It’s also what the IDF is engaged in right now, at a more official level.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Once you earn the Eagle Globe and Anchor, that is a lifetime accomplishment. The title Marine and that symbol are yours forever unless you F up in some major way, enough for a dishonorable discharge as noted above.

        This is why there is a major league frownworthy thing about decorating clothing with the EGA, or use of the latest USMC camo pattern which incorporates that symbol, if the wearer is not a Marine or family member – the Corps kept the license on that MARPAT camo pattern closely held when all the services were doing their custom patterns so they could discourage such use, at least in the civilized world.

        Like

        1. Thanks for the info about MARPAT. When I got out, Tiger Stripe was a “thing” (at least in-country in RVN), general utilities were plain OD, and Woodland camo was just being developed. I haven’t really kept up with current trends in utilities/BDUs, although I’ve seen several variants.

          Like

  38. The little old guy of undetermined Asian origin, who sometimes likes to come stand in line at the cafe, and then asks for things we don’t actually have, brought us a green (food coloring) rice ball to heat up in the microwave. (We don’t have one.)

    Last time he kept coming back around in the line, again and again, so this time I just went to the break room and microwaved his rice ball for him, and brought it out with some plasticware and a bowl. So I don’t know what Pandora’s box this may open, but at least it only took a minute and made him happy.

    I don’t even know what ethnicity he is, or what his native language is, and I am pretty sure he has a learning disability or something. But the rice ball looked nutritious, and he has a good winter coat, so somebody is taking care of him.

    I do not know why the rice ball was green. It was not mugwort green, but rather a sort of Christmas mint green. The rice looked and smelled like good rice.

    Liked by 1 person

  39. Hi Sarah, I totally agree that people deserve to be compensated for their work. My complaint is that your July fundraiser included a paid subscription through Substack for chapters to books as they are written. Posting on that site has been spotty over the past five months. You said in this article that you put significant effort into posts on your free site, yet your paid subscription site has received very little attention for months. I understand you have had numerous personal challenges this year, but the posting situation is not improving. I am not encouraged to resubscribe next year. Just wanted to provide the feedback since it is relevant to the post.

    Like

    2. For the record, it’s easier to post here, than to continue a novel when I’m sick/exhausted from other stuff.
      I don’t have to keep the back stuff in mind, here.
      BUT it’s almost ready to start up again. I get it though.

      Like

  40. The only time I stopped reading a guy for blegging, he had an aggressive popup with “I have a wife and X number of kids and this is my day job, please send money” and I’m afraid my immediate reaction was “If you have a wife and X number of kids and you’re making all this parade about being the man of the house and the breadwinner, then you need a conventional job that pays regularly, not chasing your dream of being An Influential Pundit.”

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Yeah, there’s often health or economic issues complicating the picture, and obviously I don’t know what else was going on in this guy’s life. (It seems like the only discussions about him being unable to find work amounted to “unable to find work with a particular organization he felt passionately about,” but it’s been a few years, I could be wrong.) As with some of the other examples discussed in this thread, it wasn’t so much that his request was illegitimate, it was just striking the wrong tone for me, on top of some other stuff that had rubbed me the wrong way.

        Liked by 1 person

  41. I was a bit taken aback when I subscribed to Insty’s substack. $50 is not nothing. Then I thought to myself, I thought, “how many years have I been reading Instapundit? And paid nothing for it?” I subscribed.
    I appreciate your fundraisers for the same reason plus reminders are helpful (as long as they’re not too frequent).
    Isn’t this how the “sharing economy” is supposed to work? We pay people for leveraging their otherwise idle capital (Uber, AirBnB). How is paying people for leveraging their otherwise idle labor any different?

    Liked by 1 person

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