I’m sure this makes me sound like “get off my lawn guy,” but in reality stuff like this is part of a dangerous trend over the next 5-7 years in my opinion…
Let’s presume that EVERYONE under 35 years of age decides that being an “influencer” seems more appealing than that 9-5 job for 65K per year… Nobody will work at a hotel, restaurant, oil change shop, on the assembly line, or even as an analyst at an accounting firm…
The longevity of success for these people isn’t encouraging- my son has followed 3 different “youtube sensations” over the past 3-4 years that have already seen their star die out…
Basically if everyone is trying to get “likes for a living” then there is nobody actually working or paying taxes?
You don’t have to worry about that. It’s actually pretty hard to gain an audience you can monetize. You have to make a lot of good content and know how to get it to as many eyes as possible while working the algorithms. Not enough people will have those capabilities for it to make a significant impact on the labor market. Also, youtube “stars” still have to report and pay taxes. Self employment taxes, actually, so they’re generally higher than if those same people were working a w2 job.
It’s not really different than ‘everyone’ wanting to be a movie star, or rock star before the rise of social media. A very, very small percentage actually make it work.
Plenty of people try, then fail, then look for alternate options (i.e. the ‘real jobs’ you discuss). There have always been plenty of people trying to be famous. It’s not really easier now, just some different avenues exist to get there. The world will keep spinning…