> "Why does BigTech keep tracking me!"
> "If you're not the customer, you're the product!"
> "Why is the internet getting monopolized by a few media empires owned by a few billionaires!"
Small indie developer: "hey guys I put a massive amount of work into this project, how about you just act like a customer and pay me a small amount of money".
> "Ahhh this is highway robbery! $30 is outrageously overpriced!"
People are insanely cheap with software, even professional software developers. It's an attitude that's shifting but very slowly. The VC backed ad-economy has anchored everyone's expectation that anything above $0 is somehow a ripoff.
The end result is we all get tracked, our data monetized, and the best job opportunities are mostly obeying the rules of a tiny number of elite overlords who can finance "free" products.
Also, people won't bat an eye at paying $40k, $50k, or $60k for 1 year at a university even though you'd probably learn more programming from doing Fireship's classes then a lot of undergrad CS semesters.
It has more to do with psychological anchoring than any sort of economic rationality.