NP: Death Cab For Cutie, "Meet Me On The Equinox"

I know it's all the rage right now, but it's kind of painful watching some people get on the populist bandwagon, like this guy, who thinks Google and Facebook should pay you for your personal information. This part kills me:

Web companies will argue that collecting personal data helps them afford to offer their services for free. This is true as far as it goes, which isn't very far. The biggest reason Web sites will never charge for search or social networks is that we'll all go somewhere else. What percentage of tweets, say, or YouTube videos would you actually pay to watch?

Isn't very far? Maybe it's just me, but I'm getting really tired of this culture of entitlement. We do not deserve all the best stuff, the best toys, the best services, or the best entertainment for free just because we think we should. If you don't like Google storing personal information, block all your cookies and see what your web experience is like. Delete your Facebook account and go back to writing letters, where only the NSA is probably watching.

Some of this something-for-nothing mindset grew out of the initial Internet bubble, because this claim that competitors will step in and offer the same services for free only holds up if those new competitors have lots of investment and no plan to actually make money. And that this mindset continues today could be a subject of real debate or discussion.

But to deny that these companies are delivering anything of value at this particular non-price point is madness, especially for a business writer. Just because you've integrated Internet search or social media to the point where it feels like a commodity doesn't make it so. Google's massive data centers don't pay for themselves.