That's an unfair equation, isn't it? I don't think we should be too quick to say, "I'd happily do this all day for free! I can sling burgers for MONEY!" I'm pretty sure that's not what you were saying, but lest Medium's leadership get the wrong idea - if I wanted to give out free content to an approximately equal number of readers, I'd just do it on my own website - where I also have to pay for hosting.