So that little subscribe button, up there above this sentence. If you want to you can get a paid subscription. Some folks will put extra things behind a paywall, and allow you to access them if you are a paid subscriber. Not me. If you ever see a post of mine that says, that please email me so I can fix it because it means I hit the wrong key.
If you pay for this subscription you will not get any extra videos, podcasts or posts. You won’t get any special access to me.
Apple today made it even easier to subscribe this week I am told. Don’t get me wrong, I have done the math: If all 756 subscribers paid I would be able to cover a lot of expenses with that $42,336. But even if I stay steady at my 1 paid subscriber (no he’s not a family member) I will continue to make everything I post completely accessible to you.
It is true that when I made the jump to Substack from hosting my own blog I did so in part because I liked the possibility of paid subscribers. But I also remember when the internet was kinda free, and I can’t really decry the influence of late stage capitalism on technology and then set up tiers of access now can I?
If you have read this far I will say this, doing intellectual and emotional labor in a capitalist system is rarely compensated sufficiently. Those of us who have moved into the professional managerial class, as Barbara Ehrenreich coined us, often have internalized some shame about it. Already we are betraying manual laborers by working in non-manual ways, we often think. We are supposed to do this “easy” work for the joy of it, to find meaning and identity in it our compensation. Perhaps, but my childcare provider does not accept meaning as currency, and my identity has not kept the electricity on. So I must occasionally point out that you, dear reader, have the option of paying me for my work. But never the obligation.
I will add this; that there are alternative forms of currency, special purpose money is the technical term, that you can use with my Substack. You can like and repost, you can recommend my Substack: In short you can offer the currency of your trust and your networks’ good opinion of you to let them know about this occasional Substack. I invite you to do that with some Substacks, if not mine, as an affirmation that your opinion matters, and that there are alternative forms of currency available to us all.
We need them now more than ever.
Best,
Mike