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Mutualist Blog: Free Market Anti-Capitalism

To dissolve, submerge, and cause to disappear the political or governmental system in the economic system by reducing, simplifying, decentralizing and suppressing, one after another, all the wheels of this great machine, which is called the Government or the State. --Proudhon, General Idea of the Revolution

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Location: Northwest Arkansas, United States

Friday, August 27, 2010

C4SS Still Needs Your Help

Today C4SS director Brad Spangler posted an appeal for help. It seems the low contributions so far for the July-August fundraiser (only 10% of the target) have him in a panic. He announced plans to cut back on some projected expansions (like cancelling a Radio Liberty advertising campaign in September), and to put our new commentator Stacy Litz on unpaid leave.

Tom Knapp promised to give back $100 of his monthly media coordinator salary -- which is hardly even a pittance even as it is, considering he has painstakingly compiled a distribution list of many hundreds of newspapers for submitting each and every new C4SS column. Tom's doing the kind of stuff people get paid high professional salaries for, and I'd say his performance stacks up very well against that of the pros.

I'm not as dedicated as Tom (business has been slow at my day job, and that $425 really helps with the bills), but I'm gonna subscribe for a regular $20 contribution myself -- just as soon as I get some money in the bank so the deduction doesn't bounce (hint, hint). And contributor Jock C. has promised to up his monthly contribution from $25 to $50 if ten more people sign up for monthly contributions of $10 or more.

Now that we seem to be hitting a wall for the time being in terms of limits on our expansion, it would be really great if the monthly subscriber base started catching up with our budget. As it is, that $300 in monthly subscriptions is a nice cushion, as a head start toward each month's fundraising goals. If we could meet a much larger percentage of our total budget, and smooth out the peaks and troughs a bit with dependable income, that would be even better. And it's a lot less hassle to have a modest sum like $10 or $20 deducted from your bank account every month, and feel virtuously entitled to sit back and ignore the beg-a-thons ("I already gave at the office, thanks.").

I've said this before, but if enough people subscribe, we might be able to stop these fund-raisers altogether. I'll bet if everybody who's ever contributed signed up for $10 or $20 a month, we'd be pretty close to fully funded on an ongoing basis. Imagine -- I know, I'm repeating myself -- if Jerry Lewis promised to go away forever if enough people subscribed for regular annual donations. The millions of people rushing to put their checks in the mail would probably put him over the top the next day.

Since Brad made his appeal today, the contributions have reached 28% of the goal (for which muchas gracias). That means we have enough now, at the end of August, to pay everybody for the work they did in July. Every month when we start one of these things, I wonder if I'm going to wind up writing for free a major part of the time, if we've finally reached the point where people have had enough of coughing up money. And I'd probably keep doing it if the money stopped coming in, as would most of us at C4SS. I may be stingier than Tom Knapp when it comes to giving back money, but I'd still probably keep writing for free.

That's because we believe in what we're doing. We're not giving away prayer cloths like Benny Hinn, and we won't heal your hemorrhoids if you put your hands on the monitor. No matter how much you contribute, we won't help you rid yourself of alien engrams and reach a state of "clear." All we can do is keep producing columns, research papers, radio shows and podcasts promoting the cause of human freedom. If that's something you also believe in, and you've got the means to help us out, please consider doing so.

If you want to sign up for a regular monthly contribution, just click here.

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