Re: [AML] AML Discussion Board

At 04:22 PM Friday 10/26/2007, Darvell Hunt wrote:
>I'm a little confused.
>
>I'm doing okay financially, but honestly, is $25 per year really a
>hardship for many prospective members such that they cannot afford
>to join? That's about what it costs for a couple to go on a date to
>a sit-down restaurant, and not anything fancy, either, and that's
>not even including a movie.
>
>I'm committed to my writing. I spend more than $25 on things less
>significant than the AML group. Perhaps this is why the AML seems to
>be dying out, because it is not receiving support by those who claim
>to support it.
>
>Now I don't mean to stir up controversy by saying, "What, you can't
>afford to join?" but, honestly, is $2 per month too much? How much
>do you pay for an ink cartridge to pay to print out your writing for
>drafts? Heck, a typical pen can cost $2. Isn't being a member of AML
>worth $2 per month?
>
>I apologize beforehand if I offend anyone with this question, but I
>just don't get it.
>
>Darvell Hunt


I'm not offended, and you may have intended it mainly as a rhetorical
question, but let me answer that for me at least $2 (actually, $25/12
= $2.0833333... ;)) per month might well not be an overwhelming
burden if it were paid that way, and were budgeted in advance to be
paid along with all the other bills when the monthly check
arrives. However, I expect that the handling charge on such a
transaction could quite possibly be larger than the transaction
itself. $25 at one time, however, is another matter, particularly
when it comes without any warning toward the end of the month when it
is already necessary to be careful with dollars if not pennies to
ensure that me and the cat get to eat until the next check comes and
when at least one of us is praying that no emergency or unexpected
expense which can't wait will occur before the next check comes . . .

As far as the question in your first paragraph is concerned, maybe
I'm not the only one who does not get to go to a sit-down restaurant
or a movie even once a month, and I might venture a guess that in
those couples where only one of the couple is a writer that if the
choice is between keeping the other one happy by taking them to a
restaurant or explaining that you can't go to a restaurant this month
because you spent the money to subscribe to an e-mail list . . .
(though I suppose it might be different if the writer half of the
couple indeed actually made money from said writing . . . )


-- Ronn! :)