Reader on TimesSelect: $50 a small price for democracy?

Occasionally CyberJournalist.net highlights a reader comment posted on an entry (so post away!).

This one comes to you from Cassidy, who is commenting on The New York Times new TimesSelect feature:

“I’m of two minds. I’m somewhat appalled because fifty dollars a year is a lot of money and this really may be a plot to shrink the influence of Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman . . . but it would be awfully nice to be able to click on all of those archived articles at the bottom of each page without having to pay-per-view. Another route would be for everyone to stop checking newspaper ads and cancel their subscriptions and have no newspapers in this country whatsoever. Would we still have a democracy? Maybe fifty dollars is a small price to pay in the long run.”

What do you think?