I can only tell you how I reconciled it for myself. Out of the options available to me, I chose the one that required minimum involvement in the system. So, I ended up with what basically amounts to minimal wage where I live. Sure, I had to cut down on all the fancy stuff -- for more than a decade I literally live from hand to mouth. I have enough money to don't be hungry, have a roof over my head, and have an internet connection which is nowadays a necessity. But I didn't buy anything new for myself, if I don't count a washing machine and a boiler that broke down. And since my income didn't make it possible to get new ones, I asked people around to help me out. And after I explained my situation, they, thank goodness, did. Well, I e.g. still use a smartphone I bought in 2013.

To illustrate the situation even more, when there was that global lockdown during pandemic, my wife laughed that my daily routine didn't change a bit. After all, it really didn't as I can't afford "social life" outside of my house. The only difference was that during the usual weekly visit of grocery store, I had to wear a mask. But that was it. And of course, I used this freedom to contribute. I developed some tools to help people transition to free software, made some free software myself in areas where it was sorely lacking, or I made and maintained for almost a decade an information system for an elementary school in our area. Just to name a few. Oh, and if that was not obvious, I also write this blog to give people free information I wish I had when I was younger.

No rocket science really. But I guess it's individual depending on the circumstances. The general thrust, however, is more or less general, indeed. And frankly, I have no clue, nor do I care, if it makes any difference. The bottom line is that I don’t feel guilt for pouring gasoline into the fire.