Yeah I feel this
Marco Rogers,
Mastodon,
May 22, 2024
This is a discussion those involved in free and open content should be aware of and have an answer for. Here's the gist: Sue Smith writes, "I am begging ethical web enthusiasts to understand what an extreme privilege it is to spend time working on something without worrying about money." And Marco Rogers writes, "Too many people struggle with this binary. If you care about money at all, there's only a short leap in people's heads to the worst kind of exploitative behavior. And the only way to avoid that is to not care about money at all." The full comment threads for both are worth reading. My feeling: if you are unable to share your thoughts and feelings without getting paid, because (say) you're too poor, then you don't own your own voice. It belongs to whomever is paying. People should never be in such a state of want that they have no voice. The solution here isn't to pay for content; that just entrenches the inequality and privilege of the few. It's to address the wider issue of poverty, to what is today a privilege becomes a right tomorrow.
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