You get what you pay for
What brought this issue up now?
An email I got last week which has been put into my ‘too hard’ basket but which I really do need to reply to soon.
In part, the person who has written – someone who joined the AVN a couple of years ago at a seminar we held but whose membership has since lapsed, wrote to tell me that she felt that we were turning a lot of people off by charging for information and that everything we do should be provided free of charge.
She wrote, “I believe by having an open door policy and free information for all- (after all shouldn't this information be there for everyone to access not those who can afford to?) This way, the AVN will not appear to be a minority group 'brainwashed' by select information.
And yes, I can see the point. There is no doubt that there are many people out there who would love to get our information but for whom the cost of $25 a year is prohibitive. And yes, they can access our email discussion list, our e-newsletter and our webinars for free, but the magazine and the newsletter have fees attached to them.
What is the answer? I think you would need the Wisdom of Solomon to work this out and trust me, I’m NOT in that league!
We have an organisation with two part time employees, phones, computers, electricity bills, telephone and Internet connection fees, postage and office supplies such as paper, pens, envelopes etc. to pay for. And at this point in time, our memberships are not even covering those expenses. If it weren’t for the few very generous donations that miraculously come out of the blue when we need them the most (those people know who I’m referring to and I thank you from the bottom of my heart), we would not even still be here.
When you look at it on the surface, the government information is free; the booklets you get at your doctor’s office are free. Or are they?
Turn over those glossy brochures and booklets and most likely, you will see something along the lines of – this booklet provided due to the kind support of XYZ pharmaceutical company. Or, for those few pamphlets that are provided by the Australian government, we actually purchased those with our tax dollars, didn’t we? They aren’t really free at all!
So when is free really free? And what is worth paying for?
When free comes with strings attached such as those which require doctors to give out pro-vaccination, drug-company based information – the end cost may actually be far higher than most of us would be willing to pay.
When there is an up-front fee however which enables you to access referenced information that is often analysed by top experts in their field who are independent of drug company influence; when that fee allows the organisation producing that information to continue lobbying and applying pressure so that all of us can preserve our health rights, the cost pales into insignificance.
In a perfect world, our information would be provided free of charge and would be accessible to everyone everywhere. In a perfect world, we would not have to pay bills, buy food, pay for utilities or buy clothing and other necessities. Hell, in a perfect world, the vaccine issue wouldn’t even exist and we could all have fun playing with our children and sleeping in of a morning.
But this is not a perfect world and in our reality today – you really do get what you pay for.