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Just a couple of weeks ago, the various festivals in my country were lamenting about not getting enough volunteers - compared to the pre-COVID years. Apparently

Just a couple of weeks ago, the various festivals in my country were lamenting about not getting enough volunteers - compared to the pre-COVID years. Apparently teens and young adults just aren't up to do as much free work, as they used to. Someone mentioned that they're probably too busy with paid work during their summer vacations, as they can barely afford to do anything at all with their paltry student loans or side-income during school. Mind you, these festivals are commercial entities with the goal of making money. Same goes for "community-driven" sites like Reddit. Reddit (or their owners) are in it to make money - and no small part of that is due to tireless free labor. The day old.reddit disappears, I'm jumping ship

d1sxeyes 4y ago
Reddit is free to use, and subreddit moderators are largely free to set their own rules for their little club, and can spend as much or as little time as they like enforcing them. No-one is exploiting 'free labour' here - the service Reddit offers is essentially a bulletin board hosting service, and they offer it free of charge (although yes, they do monetise it in other ways). Festivals (at least in my country) used to offer tickets in exchange for work, so again, I wouldn't really call it 'free' work. If you don't want to work for your ticket, you can buy it with money. Not sure that's a great proposition though, because a camping ticket to Download (a popular rock festival in the UK) costs about the same as 40 hours' work at the minimum wage for an 18-20 year old.