"Who is John Galt?" It's the opening line to Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. A book that has either been demonized or heralded depending on who you ask. Truth is she writes about a fairytale capitalism. Yes, she wants government out of the way. Yes, she wants business (big or small) left alone. And that would be fine - if John Galt or Dagney Taggert or Hank Reardon really existed. They practiced Capitalism in it's most honorable sense. But what about real life companies and people?
Over the last few years there's been a great movement that's come about. It's called Crowdfunding. It has been especially great for the arts. Any aspiring filmmaker or musician can put their project out there and seek support. A couple of the more popular ones are Kickstarter and Indiegogo. They provide artists with a framework to seek money and way for patrons to donate. For this service they've created they take anywhere from 4%-9%. The better the people using their site do the better they do. So for every dollar you give up to 9 cents is going to go the company that made it possible for you to connect with the project. Awesome right? What if that were 30 cents? How about 50 cents? In some cases even 70 cents! It would start to seem a little absurd.
So why don't we question iTunes who does take 30%? Or Amazon who's fees can add up to 70%. Or Comixology or any of these companies that are taking a profound amount of money off the top? This is only an interpretation but...John Galt would not approve.
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