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Money Does Not Make Free Software Activists Happy
But sometimes it can help
Money is, to some people, like a drug. They get "high" merely seeing some number that pertains to some bank balance or whatnot. But money is still a man-made concept and life is finite. To accomplish meaningful things in life one needs spirit and passion; money can help buy labour from other people, but the labour of those people is their own accomplishment.
Cory Doctorow, who is not rich, recently wrote that there is no ethical way to become a billionaire. It depends on exploitation. Sometimes the term "wave theft" is used (underpaying or not paying for work).
In the Free (libre) world we respect people not for their wealth but for measurable technical things. It's not a business.
In the business spheres, people tend to be eternally unhappy because there is always someone else out there who is "richer" (or will be "richer" some time later). They use money as a "score" and gamify their lives like it is a hoarding competition and Forbes is an "umpire".
Fulfilling life requires not engaging in silly competitions like these. Those sad people end up seeking companionship from Jeffrey Epstein, then they get caught, and they will eternally be remembered as perverts or pedophiles, not "success stories". █
Image source: Smoking and money