[Donzo]

One issue that is not addressed by the subscription model is the subsidizing effect that the ad-based model has:

The finance professional who lives in New York has very valuable page views. The African school girl does not. Yet, through advertising their values are averaged. The affluent subsidize the poor without even knowing it.

Putting content behind a pay-wall reduces this effect and creates an informational disparity that will only broaden the gap of equality between the two.

The New York finance professional just has to decide that the subscription is "worth" paying. The African school girl cannot make this same decision.

[TeMPOraL]

For me this is the only positive aspect of our ad-based Internet. It allows people with no money or means to use it - be it a poor African girl, or just me when I was a kid - to access the same information everyone else can. If we could solve that somehow, then killing off Internet advertising would immediately improve the world.

[TimJYoung]

Libraries solve that need, so if there's a way to help fund that type of initiative, especially if it already exists, we should all promote it aggressively.

[vinod1073]

I think this problem can be solved by place/people specific subscription rates rather than fixed ones.

[Silixon]

Opportunity costs only exist wherein opportunities exist.