I mean, sure, you can always not talk about or suggest them, but so much of what you’re dealing with day to day is probably from some big business. Also I am aware of the concept of universal basic income, but I’ve not really seen it framed/discussed from this sort of perspective, which imo at least is morbidly funnier.
At any rate, capitalists made this market where time’s money and ya always gotta be hustling, so if they think they’re owed free word o’ mouth, well, who’s all entitled then, eh?
The entire point of word of mouth is that it isn’t marketing. It’s genuine information that’s valuable to other people.
People being paid to fake word of mouth has already massively corrupted the whole thing, but your version would be way worse and completely destroy any integrity actual human interaction has.
Isn’t it more that that was the original point of word of mouth? When I’ve asked others how they’ve found out about new music/movies/games, some have also said through word of mouth, hence why I mentioned it in the OP.
Regardless, I agree with your conclusion, and on my worst days I feel we’ve already hit that point when trying to reach out to others only for it to be a setup for some scam.