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I'm not saying this is the way to go, but damn do I miss the old internet where passionate people presented information for free, at worst showing an affiliate link for an information-related book.

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People need to be able to make a living and when this is taken away, the living expenses don't disappear. Most people can't pay for their electricity or food with voluntary work.

The people who were doing this on the early internet were not trying to make a living off of it, they were just doing it because they enjoyed it and wanted to share what they built with the world. If you could cover your server costs then that was considered a win.

There are plenty of people giving away their labour for free, which makes it harder for people who need to be able to make some money in order to support themselves.

People making passion projects for free don't owe anyone a business model.

They aren't always making passion projects. They're told unpaid labour is good for their CV/resumé, or that they're helping society (sometimes the case, but sometimes not).

Massive corporations such as Alphabet do have the resources to pay YouTubers, especially given how much tax they avoid in most countries.

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