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http://dilbert.com/strip/2017-04-30AFAIK, this is because of the banks, who rejected a simple solution of payments via web early on (some time in the nineties) because they weren't sure they could completely control the process, so they vetoed it. So instead of direct web payments for content and services, we got the Napster et al on one side, and ad based web economy. Which kills the creativity and smaller businesses right away - if you can't make it into millions of visits, or get thousands of subscribers, you don't even break even. And it's hard to get subscribers, because whatever you do for a small fee, within a few weeks there's someone out there doing the (allegedly) same thing for "free" (with ads), armed with all the SEO artillery (and probably gets artificially elevated over you because he's a Google revenue vehicle).
In that sense, few days ago I was warned on StatCounter that while I enjoy the free service for a number of years, my ad blocker is not good for their business model, so if I'm willing to keep them afloat, I should consider whitelisting them or subscribing. Well, put your money where your mouth is (a proverb I learned during that long cultural experiment), so I paid up.
