Re: Will the free market solve everything?
The Low Golden Willow (phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu)
Mon, 24 Feb 1997 10:38:16 -0800 (PST)
John? Sure, Murdoch's paper might be readable. But say it costs $.50
to produce, at which price I prefer to read a different paper. But when
Murdoch's paper is free, I'm willing to read it instead of the paper I
have to pay for. Eventually that paper goes out of business and Murdoch
starts charging $.50 again. Now I'd like to read something better, but
the competitor is out of business, and if it is non-trivial to start a
new paper I may be stuck with reading Murdoch or nothing. So I read
Murdoch. Not an ideal solution.
I'm not saying what should be done about it, or that something should be
done, but it does seem to be a sub-ideal solution at least, and if you
can't disprove that you should acknowledge it, or people you'd like to
convince will think you're a nut and not listen to you.
-xx- Damien R. Sullivan X-)