[temac]

There is that little thing that some people who frequent HN might forget about: some people are not paid a lot (for tons of them this is a mistake of the society, and they should be paid more to begin with, but this is another issue than the immediate one) and actually need some money each month to pay rent, etc.

It is too easy to say the a mass of people should just work for free to cope for the mistakes of their government. Now of course some people will do it and I admire them, some of them will even do it while in personal financial trouble and I admire them even more.

But they absolutely should be paid in the end. Because the value they will provide to the society is just enormous, and "us" (for those who do not help with the crisis) not paying them would not really be the fairest situation...

[true_religion]

That’s really important to remember, but I don’t see why it should affect discussion here.

Presumably we aren’t talking about volunteering the time of other people, but ourselves. If we can all afford to do it, isn’t it something to be encouraged, especially since it will charitably benefit those who cannot afford to do it?

[lucb1e]

Maybe it's not wise for people to volunteer during work hours when they live paycheck to paycheck, but there are also a lot of people that can easily take one or two days off per week to help out. I'm not suggesting that someone who needs it foregoes their salary.

[rexpop]

There's definitely a selection bias in this forum. It's an echo chamber of petit bourgeois–myself included.