How is proposing a solution for an acute problem "less pragmatic" than proceeding as if nothing changed?
It's true that we never payed for news, but news isn't what it used to be either. News is written by your friends these days, not companies (I'm exaggerating, but still). Micro payments seem to be the best replacement we currently have. They're not just useful for blogs an the like, but also open source software development — and with Bitcoin around, we might not even need services like Flattr all together.
The pragmatic thing to do is to give micro payments a fair shot.
It's true that we never payed for news, but news isn't what it used to be either. News is written by your friends these days, not companies (I'm exaggerating, but still). Micro payments seem to be the best replacement we currently have. They're not just useful for blogs an the like, but also open source software development — and with Bitcoin around, we might not even need services like Flattr all together.
The pragmatic thing to do is to give micro payments a fair shot.