@Zaknel
I’ll admit it was a poor choice of words. There are people who work hard making videos, but it’s not the same as working hard as a carpenter, or a surgeon, or an actuary.
Now if people use their video platform to advertise physical products that they make (say a youtube musician is selling CDs, back when CDs existed, or is advertising a concert, or someone is writing books or making posters or knitting scarfs or something), that’s a physical thing that someone can own, or even advertising a service like “I’ll write the code for your website for a fee,” that’s different. It’s not “Give me money so I don’t have to get a real job,” (which a lot of youtubers say in their videos when they beg for money, although they’ll use weasel words “give me money so youtube can be my full-time career”).
I also have no problem with crowdfunding for if your house is destroyed in a flood or if you have cancer and need ridiculously (immorally) expensive treatment*, or even crowdfunding to develop a game, that’s also different, because, again, that’s a real thing that exists in the physical world.
A video is not a “thing”, and most of the successful youtubers make videos reading scripts they didn’t write, that are copypasta from other online articles, or ranting on camera (often the stupid multi-cam setup that I can’t stand because I don’t want to look at the side of someone’s head), and they become popular by either 1. being attractive young women, or 2. repeating certain phrases that resonate with certain groups who they know are likely to give them money, or 3. clickbait (which often involves attractive young women who don’t appear in the actual videos).
The people who spend years developing amazing talents don’t really have potential for making ad revenue, and being young and attractive or having a nice voice and reading articles someone else wrote isn’t something that anyone actually worked for.
@Anonymous #2609
I gave the example of Pat Condell who did say no. He refuses to monetize his videos or ask for donations because he believes, as I do, that videos should be free.
Neil Patel has a video explaining why he doesn’t put ads on his videos or beg for donations. He does say at the end “Do it if you want,” but he also says “I believe in karma and you should help others because it’s the right thing do do.”
*And I do believe that the cost of healthcare is immorally expensive. A full dose of Rabies prophylaxis in the US costs $40,000 yet it costs maybe $20 in India. An ambulance ride costs $2,000 per mile.
