I pay because I want to support the good Prof. But your point about helping others get free access is excellent. I honestly never thought about it that way!
I pay to reward the great creators I used to follow elsewhere - I get world-class journalism and analysis for an affordable investment. And I pay to stick my thumb in the eye of the formerly-great newspapers now owned and degraded by oligarchs. And, I pay for the thought-provoking pieces which keep me from crawling deep into a cave of hopelessness.
Congratulations on your success! And thank you to Robin for all of her work on the Substack. I really enjoy it for the quality of the writing and information!
The reason some viewers may consider Substack a "right wing" outfit may have to do with the fact that the founders originally said it would be ad free & not like social media. Now, they are getting a big bump of venture fund money to solicit ads and become more like social media. I've thought about that...after all Google went from "Do no evil" to becoming more like every other greedy big company and Face Book actively consorts with Russian government influence and has shut me off without giving it a credit card for access so that its adversarial foreign advertisers can steal more of my funds to post more of their divisive memes to further divide our population into civil war &/or state collapse. Once any entity becomes "too big for its britches", it's time to move on. Paul Krugman could probably have his own web page if that comes to be--as many who move from mainstream media may also be able to afford to do so once their paid followers are willing to financially support the cyber security infrastructure that would require. Substack is a way to "share" other writers with one's audience, but I do find that many just regurgitate what I've already read in greater detail in mainstream news (too expensive to compete for far-flung global journalist payroll provided by deep pocket legacy media). Also to keep in mind, Substack writer Ken Klippenstein is included in that WSJ lawsuit Trump filed due to Klippenstein's post(s) on X. Substack may still be considered too obscure for soundbite headline followers and not yet known to a broad audience as legacy media is.
Thank you Paul. I am a paid subscriber. I also have a PBS Passport. I no longer support legacy news with subscriptions to streaming news services. Rather I will subscribe to support writers and thinkers whose work I support and require to stay on top of what is happening in our world. It's important to support living artists in all mediums
I appreciate the free access and feel it is the right thing to do so that those who are struggling economically can be better informed. This is in contrast to those who prioritize $ over keeping information flowing. Thank you
I gave him shit for having a paywall at all a ways back but he really is killing himself and doing well (and good) instead of enjoying semiretirement with his cat so I threw down.
Seventy bucks—that’s like buying him a few drinks! That should be his new subscription campaign: “The Paul Krugman Drink Fund. Help me help you by giving me the painkiller I need to write about these assholes!” 😊
I got that pro translation services cost from 8¢ to 30¢ a word, but they would probably provide a bulk rate on contract. (Um, that might be what the 8¢ is about.)
I am angry, frustrated, and disheartened by what is happening to my country. So I write because, being 92, housebound, living on a pension with diminishing energy, I can only write and think. I want to help, I want to fight. I want to yell from the church tower like Paul Revere and shout, 'The enemy is coming, the enemy is here, the enemy is winning.' But I sit at my desk in my wonderful house in the Berkshires and wage a mental war against my country's enemy, and all I can do is write. It makes me feel better, so I write.
When our flag was raised at the Olympics, I had to hold back my feelings of joy. In comparison, this past Fourth of July, I couldn't feel proud of my country when half of them believe in and cheer Trump.
Warriors, when preparing for a battle, develop war plans or battle plans and follow specific procedures. First, they learn about their enemy. Second, they select the location where the battle will occur. Third, they understand and assess their forces.
And so I develop my battle plans. My enemy is massive and consists of three entities: one is the dark money forces, the second is capitalism, and the third is the middle class.
Trump is not my enemy; he's a clown, buffoon, puppet whose voice is that of the dark money billionaires and multi-millionaires. This enemy, the dark money, is well-organized, well-funded, with billions of dollars at its disposal, and has a long history of an active campaign to change how our government functions to better align with its financial interests.
The second enemy is difficult to define because it is a cultural belief system that is accepted and promoted by the elite and our society as a whole. I believe we have all lived with this mindset without questioning it: that certain people in our culture deserve to be paid more than others. No one questions this; we all agree and see no problem with it. Doctors, surgeons, star athletes, and entrepreneurs should all earn more than the average person or those in other professions. People with a college degree should make more than those with only a high school diploma; this is the core of capitalism, and it is how billionaires are created.
We all think this is right, this is never questioned, this is a socially accepted belief, except maybe it is questioned by some crazy Marxist or Socialist. Perhaps there are those whom we would agree should earn and deserve more pay than the general public, but a thousand percent higher is creating billionaires. No one ever considers what a reasonable increase should be. I offer for consideration two examples of societies that operate under different guidelines for compensating individuals. One is the Mongragon Corporation in Spain, founded by a priest, and has a unique structure where employees are also owners of the business. The other is Marinleda, a town in Spain located in the province of Andalusia.
The third problem is the middle class, both now and in the past. My middle-class never aspired to be millionaires. We wanted a way to have a comfortable life with a lovely house, a job that we liked, good healthcare, possibly a family, and living in a neighborhood with other people like us. We believed in caring for others and left the operation of our country to the politicians. We drank the Kool-Aid provided by the dark money propaganda machine. We avoided our reality by not being concerned with the Tea Party or the fact that Obama's health plan was crippled. That's it! We were essentially asleep at the wheel; we were lost in our dream state. But my middle class is walking out the door, and is already a dying breed. My concern is with the middle class of today, who are foreigners to me, and I don't know how to warn them about the fate of their country. They seem to be a friendly bunch, neither aggressive nor thinking of war or fighting. The idea of being successful and becoming a millionaire is prevalent in their culture. I may be wrong because I have a limited sample of this population. Somehow, this should be their war, but I am not sensing any overt concern with stopping Trump and his band of marauders. I know that I have read and outlined Project 2025, a 900-page book, and that there are excellent books that summarize it. However, I do not know of anyone else who has read it, including the network commentators, and I doubt that this middle class has taken the time to read this book.
The terrain where the battle will take place presents problems because our enemy already has an advantage, having no resistance from Congress and the courts, and with massive amounts of dark money, has already established a beachhead and launched a total invasion and occupation of Washington.
Upon reviewing my weapons, I realize they are no match for my enemy. Half of Congress is dead in their chairs, nodding in accord with Trump. So I cannot assume they will offer any resistance. The Democratic Party is useless and is led by weak, aged nonfighters who caused Trump to be elected the second time by not acknowledging that Biden was obviously deteriorating. They waited three months before the election to announce that Biden was not running, giving Vice President Harris three months to defeat Trump without any help from them.
I do not see any way to match their funding, which comes from billionaires who started in 1977, such as the Koch brothers, and will continue into the future. I don't think that there is a match for Trump's "Truth Social" with 6.3 million active participants and his fellow billionaires controlling the press and the broadcasting systems. I think the Democrats will take control of Congress in November. Still, the dark money will continue to finance those who support their government takeover. There is the truth that the Republican Party will retake control of Congress in the future elections. The dark money will finance and lobby to obtain its goal of a government designed to increase its wealth.
The dark money has effectively campaigned against any ideas or programs that promote the concept of a country with less capitalism, such as a national health plan, free college tuition, and an increase in social security benefits, and above all, stronger unions.
I return to the idea that the only effective organization to take on the battle is the democratic states that can match the financial resources of the billionaires and reduce the power of the president, as well as control the billionaires' ability to buy members of Congress, because the states are better controlled by their citizens. I wish I had another idea, and if you have one, please share. So I feel as though I've fought my battle, and now I can rest.
Terrence Goggin from The West Point History Professor here on Substack has a couple of recent posts that cover your concerns and how to be prepared for what may happen.
Odd to me that you would be encouraged to quit Substack because it is right wing. If you, HCR, Reich, Jen and Norm, Simon Rosenberg, quit Substack you will MAKE it right wing! I have no doubt that some of the folks getting rich off the platform disagree with us but it remains the best way to get the word out.
Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. About everything ❤️🩹🤍💙
Use/share this spreadsheet as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, and those in a committee that fits your topic.
I should also be paying for Matt Stoller's & Ken Klippenstein's. I would like to send them money orders, though--especially the latter--as he may irritate the intelligence agency/ies.
Please do not leave, Dr. K. No platform is perfect, but the ideological purity warriors would rather burn down the house than try to live in it. We need to use what tools we have effectively and Substack has become a viable way to disseminate the news and opinions. Let the radical critics on the extreme left rail. The ones on the extreme right can go to hell. You're not going to change any minds on either pole and, in fact, the far poles come close to meeting at the top, so it's pointless to even try. MANY MANY MANY of us appreciate your words every day, along with those of HCR and some others. Please keep up the good fight.
Glad you made the move from the Times, and very happy to have your more free wheeling views shared so widely.
For the record, I pay NOT for the behind paywall stuff (no reflection on quality) but because I want to help people get free access to your views.
More people can read your views here for free than could at the Times.
I pay because I want to support the good Prof. But your point about helping others get free access is excellent. I honestly never thought about it that way!
Report the spam bot please. (The REPORT button doesn’t work on the iPhone).
I pay to reward the great creators I used to follow elsewhere - I get world-class journalism and analysis for an affordable investment. And I pay to stick my thumb in the eye of the formerly-great newspapers now owned and degraded by oligarchs. And, I pay for the thought-provoking pieces which keep me from crawling deep into a cave of hopelessness.
Thank you,David!
Ditto here.
Keep up the great work.
FYI, I pay because your Substack posts are ones I always read and I think your work is critical at this moment in time. Thanks.
Congratulations on your success! And thank you to Robin for all of her work on the Substack. I really enjoy it for the quality of the writing and information!
And kudos to Jack. We also have a big tuxedo feline. He and his sable housemate do their part to keep us all sane. The purr is an awesome drug.
The right wingers say Substack is left-wing and vice versa. Keep writing Paul. Thanks for keeping your work accessible to EVERYONE.
It would be ironic to keep a series on inequality behind a paywall. 🤣
The reason some viewers may consider Substack a "right wing" outfit may have to do with the fact that the founders originally said it would be ad free & not like social media. Now, they are getting a big bump of venture fund money to solicit ads and become more like social media. I've thought about that...after all Google went from "Do no evil" to becoming more like every other greedy big company and Face Book actively consorts with Russian government influence and has shut me off without giving it a credit card for access so that its adversarial foreign advertisers can steal more of my funds to post more of their divisive memes to further divide our population into civil war &/or state collapse. Once any entity becomes "too big for its britches", it's time to move on. Paul Krugman could probably have his own web page if that comes to be--as many who move from mainstream media may also be able to afford to do so once their paid followers are willing to financially support the cyber security infrastructure that would require. Substack is a way to "share" other writers with one's audience, but I do find that many just regurgitate what I've already read in greater detail in mainstream news (too expensive to compete for far-flung global journalist payroll provided by deep pocket legacy media). Also to keep in mind, Substack writer Ken Klippenstein is included in that WSJ lawsuit Trump filed due to Klippenstein's post(s) on X. Substack may still be considered too obscure for soundbite headline followers and not yet known to a broad audience as legacy media is.
Thank you Paul. I am a paid subscriber. I also have a PBS Passport. I no longer support legacy news with subscriptions to streaming news services. Rather I will subscribe to support writers and thinkers whose work I support and require to stay on top of what is happening in our world. It's important to support living artists in all mediums
I’ll buy a gift scrip if it will help you pass the shattered remains of Matt Taibbi!
I appreciate the free access and feel it is the right thing to do so that those who are struggling economically can be better informed. This is in contrast to those who prioritize $ over keeping information flowing. Thank you
Great idea putting that series up for free. I just subscribed a week ago, so that should offset it all.
Me too, this week!
I gave him shit for having a paywall at all a ways back but he really is killing himself and doing well (and good) instead of enjoying semiretirement with his cat so I threw down.
Seventy bucks—that’s like buying him a few drinks! That should be his new subscription campaign: “The Paul Krugman Drink Fund. Help me help you by giving me the painkiller I need to write about these assholes!” 😊
He’s a workaholic! He went on vacation in Europe but kept posting throughout.
I certainly hope he's not killing himself!
Thanks for the free primers! Have you thought about translating your Substack into Spanish?
I got that pro translation services cost from 8¢ to 30¢ a word, but they would probably provide a bulk rate on contract. (Um, that might be what the 8¢ is about.)
'Nate Silver has a bad word for everyone' 🤣
And so I write
I am angry, frustrated, and disheartened by what is happening to my country. So I write because, being 92, housebound, living on a pension with diminishing energy, I can only write and think. I want to help, I want to fight. I want to yell from the church tower like Paul Revere and shout, 'The enemy is coming, the enemy is here, the enemy is winning.' But I sit at my desk in my wonderful house in the Berkshires and wage a mental war against my country's enemy, and all I can do is write. It makes me feel better, so I write.
When our flag was raised at the Olympics, I had to hold back my feelings of joy. In comparison, this past Fourth of July, I couldn't feel proud of my country when half of them believe in and cheer Trump.
Warriors, when preparing for a battle, develop war plans or battle plans and follow specific procedures. First, they learn about their enemy. Second, they select the location where the battle will occur. Third, they understand and assess their forces.
And so I develop my battle plans. My enemy is massive and consists of three entities: one is the dark money forces, the second is capitalism, and the third is the middle class.
Trump is not my enemy; he's a clown, buffoon, puppet whose voice is that of the dark money billionaires and multi-millionaires. This enemy, the dark money, is well-organized, well-funded, with billions of dollars at its disposal, and has a long history of an active campaign to change how our government functions to better align with its financial interests.
The second enemy is difficult to define because it is a cultural belief system that is accepted and promoted by the elite and our society as a whole. I believe we have all lived with this mindset without questioning it: that certain people in our culture deserve to be paid more than others. No one questions this; we all agree and see no problem with it. Doctors, surgeons, star athletes, and entrepreneurs should all earn more than the average person or those in other professions. People with a college degree should make more than those with only a high school diploma; this is the core of capitalism, and it is how billionaires are created.
We all think this is right, this is never questioned, this is a socially accepted belief, except maybe it is questioned by some crazy Marxist or Socialist. Perhaps there are those whom we would agree should earn and deserve more pay than the general public, but a thousand percent higher is creating billionaires. No one ever considers what a reasonable increase should be. I offer for consideration two examples of societies that operate under different guidelines for compensating individuals. One is the Mongragon Corporation in Spain, founded by a priest, and has a unique structure where employees are also owners of the business. The other is Marinleda, a town in Spain located in the province of Andalusia.
The third problem is the middle class, both now and in the past. My middle-class never aspired to be millionaires. We wanted a way to have a comfortable life with a lovely house, a job that we liked, good healthcare, possibly a family, and living in a neighborhood with other people like us. We believed in caring for others and left the operation of our country to the politicians. We drank the Kool-Aid provided by the dark money propaganda machine. We avoided our reality by not being concerned with the Tea Party or the fact that Obama's health plan was crippled. That's it! We were essentially asleep at the wheel; we were lost in our dream state. But my middle class is walking out the door, and is already a dying breed. My concern is with the middle class of today, who are foreigners to me, and I don't know how to warn them about the fate of their country. They seem to be a friendly bunch, neither aggressive nor thinking of war or fighting. The idea of being successful and becoming a millionaire is prevalent in their culture. I may be wrong because I have a limited sample of this population. Somehow, this should be their war, but I am not sensing any overt concern with stopping Trump and his band of marauders. I know that I have read and outlined Project 2025, a 900-page book, and that there are excellent books that summarize it. However, I do not know of anyone else who has read it, including the network commentators, and I doubt that this middle class has taken the time to read this book.
The terrain where the battle will take place presents problems because our enemy already has an advantage, having no resistance from Congress and the courts, and with massive amounts of dark money, has already established a beachhead and launched a total invasion and occupation of Washington.
Upon reviewing my weapons, I realize they are no match for my enemy. Half of Congress is dead in their chairs, nodding in accord with Trump. So I cannot assume they will offer any resistance. The Democratic Party is useless and is led by weak, aged nonfighters who caused Trump to be elected the second time by not acknowledging that Biden was obviously deteriorating. They waited three months before the election to announce that Biden was not running, giving Vice President Harris three months to defeat Trump without any help from them.
I do not see any way to match their funding, which comes from billionaires who started in 1977, such as the Koch brothers, and will continue into the future. I don't think that there is a match for Trump's "Truth Social" with 6.3 million active participants and his fellow billionaires controlling the press and the broadcasting systems. I think the Democrats will take control of Congress in November. Still, the dark money will continue to finance those who support their government takeover. There is the truth that the Republican Party will retake control of Congress in the future elections. The dark money will finance and lobby to obtain its goal of a government designed to increase its wealth.
The dark money has effectively campaigned against any ideas or programs that promote the concept of a country with less capitalism, such as a national health plan, free college tuition, and an increase in social security benefits, and above all, stronger unions.
I return to the idea that the only effective organization to take on the battle is the democratic states that can match the financial resources of the billionaires and reduce the power of the president, as well as control the billionaires' ability to buy members of Congress, because the states are better controlled by their citizens. I wish I had another idea, and if you have one, please share. So I feel as though I've fought my battle, and now I can rest.
Terrence Goggin from The West Point History Professor here on Substack has a couple of recent posts that cover your concerns and how to be prepared for what may happen.
Thank you!!!
Odd to me that you would be encouraged to quit Substack because it is right wing. If you, HCR, Reich, Jen and Norm, Simon Rosenberg, quit Substack you will MAKE it right wing! I have no doubt that some of the folks getting rich off the platform disagree with us but it remains the best way to get the word out.
To be honest, I don't see any justification of calling Substack "right wing."
I suspect it got tainted by association with Taibbi, Greenwald, et al.
The "politically aware" would react viscerally to that, while at the same time being unaware of the science, sports, cooking and other topics covered.
Neither do I. Can someone who thinks so please explain?
See my more recent comment to US Blue's post above/before yours'.
Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. About everything ❤️🩹🤍💙
Use/share this spreadsheet as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, and those in a committee that fits your topic.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13lYafj0P-6owAJcH-5_xcpcRvMUZI7rkBPW-Ma9e7hw/edit?usp=drivesdk
I probably subscribe to 5,6,7? Substacks and none compare to the education you offer. And then there is the CODA! Gotta love the CODA!
I should also be paying for Matt Stoller's & Ken Klippenstein's. I would like to send them money orders, though--especially the latter--as he may irritate the intelligence agency/ies.
Your profile says you’re subscribed to 40! (Not all paid). I’m subscribed to a bunch, too.
I pay for the quality of the writing here, and will do so until I run out of money.
Please do not leave, Dr. K. No platform is perfect, but the ideological purity warriors would rather burn down the house than try to live in it. We need to use what tools we have effectively and Substack has become a viable way to disseminate the news and opinions. Let the radical critics on the extreme left rail. The ones on the extreme right can go to hell. You're not going to change any minds on either pole and, in fact, the far poles come close to meeting at the top, so it's pointless to even try. MANY MANY MANY of us appreciate your words every day, along with those of HCR and some others. Please keep up the good fight.