In Debt: The First 5,000 Years, anthropologist David Graeber explores the fascinating history of debt and economies. It starts out by debunking the common myth that prior to coinage, everyone were trapped in this inefficient mode of barter. If you had a chicken to give and wanted sugar from Gandalf, but Gandalf was a vegetarian, you ha...
I think we are in 99% agreement, but I also think the OpenSSL or Log4J people brought this upon themselves to some extend as they should have dropped supporting it long ago under such circumstances. Maybe the projects would have died, but surely one way or another there would be a better funded (but likely company consortium owned) open-source equivalent now.
Exploitation was really to a large extend self-exploitation there.