Kind of short sighted. Sometimes you give talks in order to get more talks. From experience, that's how these things work. All of my paid (not that there were too many) speaking engagements came in some way or another as a result of speaking at a nice venue for free.<p>Also, I personally enjoy going on stage very much.<p>Indeed TED events are costly, but TEDx are not, and there are hundreds of them around the world every year. No reason TED global should sponsor them.<p>Finally, if you're really passionate about something, an 18 minute talk is something you can give away for humanity's sake.