Patreon?
(Why nine characters?)
Working for free isn’t just about masochism, it’s downright unethical and every bit as bad as those who ask people to do said work without compensation. By agreeing to it you legitamise the practice and help to increase the number of unpaid positions as well as forcing down actual pay (“Why should we keep paying you $X when we can get people to do it for free?”). If you agree to work for nothing, you’re part of the problem. May mobs of pickets eternally trample you in Tartarus.
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I agree with the spirit of this view in general - (particularly in terms of labor that overlaps with established labor unions, regular trades) - but I wonder how it would apply to non-commercial creative acts and activity, such as folk-music/underground-music production, tape culture, open-source software etc. Would we say that only commercially/market motivated art and tool-making is allowed? That would definitely have a narrowing effect on the variety of forms being generated in the world.
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I don’t think that this was a voluntary gift from the workforce to the management/shareholders.
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Important distinction: If you’re pursuing unpaid creative endeavors for your own personal enrichment then it’s a hobby (even if you share that hobby with the world). If you’re doing it for someone else (especially for a commercial interest) then it’s working for free.
“I’m playing my guitar in the park because I like to” is a whole different situation than “I’m recording a commercial jingle for the exposure.” Same goes for open-source software: if you’re contributing to the next build of GIMP because you think it’s an interesting side project then that’s fine, but if Adobe asks you to help them create the next version of Photoshop then you shouldn’t take them up on it unless they’re willing to pay.
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No doubt. … although I think there are potentially some interesting contradictions when extending this idea out a bit. (On an inter- and intra-personal level).
“Should you work for free? *(Even if that someone-else is your imagined future boss/self/fan etc.?)”
Summary
(the contradictions aren’t logically required in any imaginable world, they are particular to the conditions in an historical era marked by neoliberal market-fundamentalist religious dogma, tenuous social circumstances and all that).
I’ve been doing this for years because it creates a paper trail for you to claim the deduction on your taxes.
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I have a couple standardized answers for that question now:
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Ditto.
We might be friends / competitors!
I’ve had the precise same thing, and if I say so myself, adroitly avoided the issue by (1) pointing out that very few people can do this at anywhere near my price, (2) you can buy a template, sure, and (3) providing the template but not the intelligence behind it - i.e. it’s built and simple, they think they got what they attempted to filch, but they’re getting something they can’t really change or work with beyond the basic purpose.
As for work for free - nope, nope, nope - I’d rather starve. I can educate my kids myself. I can grow stuff.
I’ve seen into the darkest of capitalistic hearts, the most rotten, foul and stinking pits, and know fundamentally that working for free doesn’t help anyone except the exploiter.
Get something in return. Anything worthwhile. But never work for free.
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