Another fun thing to note: That since Ted X is independently ran, there's no quality checks most of the time. Which means they can really just grab anyone off the street to do a talk. And among skeptics at least (maybe more people as well), TedX is getting a bad name (as opposed to the regular Ted which has wonderful talks). I don't think that giving a free ted talk would be bad. But I can see where you are coming from. If you don't need the recognition or w/e, then it's easy to say "yea, I want to be paid." But for someone just entering the industry, having the opportunity to give a ted talk would probably be a nice resume piece. Nonetheless, I agree. TED talks have been becoming shit year after year and it's probably because the speakers don't get paid. I wasn't aware of this, but now it all makes sense.