The DEFINITIVE answer to: How much should I charge?

[Tom Mornini <tm...@infomania.com>]

This whole thread can be answered very easily:

ANSWER: As much as you can.

That's it! That's the entire answer. Nothing else should figure in 
unless you
personally wish to make exceptions for any reason you see fit.

Did the people who ask this question grow up and become educated in a 
part of the
world where free markets and capitalism did not exist?

Perhaps in socialistic colleges in the U.S.? :-)

--
-- Tom Mornini
-- InfoMania Printing & Prepress

[OT]Re: The DEFINITIVE answer to: How much should I charge?

[ed phillips <ar...@sirius.com>]

Tom Mornini wrote:
> 
> This whole thread can be answered very easily:
> 
> ANSWER: As much as you can.
> 
> That's it! That's the entire answer. Nothing else should figure in
> unless you
> personally wish to make exceptions for any reason you see fit.
> 
> Did the people who ask this question grow up and become educated in a
> part of the
> world where free markets and capitalism did not exist?
> 
> Perhaps in socialistic colleges in the U.S.? :-)
> 

If you mean when you say, "sociailistic colleges", very well funded
universities full of tenured radicals, then I'm guilty. ;-)

Those were my favorite professors!  But, I was never deluded into
thinking they had in any sense escaped the money economy. The star
tenured radicals such as Fred Jameson for example make as much or more
than a very well paid software developer so one must appreciate the
ironies.

As a freelancer you charge what the market will bear. Besides the extra
cost of benefits and the added tax liabilities one must also factor in
the assumption of risk if you want to come to a justification for
charging 100+ per hour. If you don't feel the need to justify, then you
merely say, "I charge the market rate." No tenured radical would
begrudge you. They know on what side their bread is buttered. ;-)

ed