diethelm,
SPOT ON!!!!
I'm getting bloody sick to death of the threads on both here and the Instructors forum flaming anyone who commits that terrible awful sin of WORKING FOR FREE!!!!
Shut up, grow up, and stop moaning. This is a horrendously competitive industry, and people get on in it the same way that loads of other people get on in the world, by clawing their way up by their bootlaces, in whatever way they see best. Is the shopkeeper who sells at below cost price to get going and get known a lousy thief...or a canny entrepreneur? Is the builder who starts off by undercutting the competition stupid, or farsighted? Is someone who takes on a career requiring years and years of undergraduate work followed by postgrad followed by being next to a slave on a pittance (like the lawyers and doctors already mentioned) an idiot, or simply accepting reality? Is the actor or artist or writer or musician who starves for years to do what they love a lunatic or a genius? It's no bloody different!!!!!!!! It's the way of the world. And if you don't like it, fight back some other way, or insist on being unionised, or come up with a good alternative. But whatever you do, STOP MOANING AND RANTING ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(And I've already said that I personally wouldn't choose to work for free, if you look back, so don't bother attacking me personally.)